I 




HEAVEN OPENED 



OR 



EXPOSITIONS OF THE BOOK OF REVE- 
LATION. 



J) 



REV- A. B. SIMPSON 



published by 
Christian Alliance Publishing Co. 
Nyack and New York. 



***** 



39383 



Copyright, 1899. 
By Rev. A. B. Simpson. 

rWO COPIES DECEIVED, 



APR 8-1809 J 



CONTENTS. 

i. 

Heaven Opened. 
II. 

Christ in the Apocalypse. 
III. 

The Vision of the Churches. 
IV. 

The Throne, the Lamb and the Seals. 
V. 

The Trumpets and the Tribulation. 
VI. 

The Mother Church and the Manchild. 
VII. 

The Two Beasts. 
VIII. 

The Firstfruits and the Harvest. 
IX. 

The Vials and the Plagues. 
X. 

Mystical Babylon, 



Contents. 



XL 

The Marriage of the Lamb. 
XII. 

The Epiphany, the Resurrection and the 
Millennium. 

XIII. 

The Great White Throne. 
XIV. 

The New Jerusalem. 
XV. 

Even So Come. 



PREFACE. 

The following pages contain the sub- 
stance of a series of addresses delivered by 
the author during the past season to the 
congregation to which he statedly mini- 
sters. They are not, therefore, addressed 
so much to a critical and scholarly audience 
as to the popular mind and heart. They 
are intended to give, in a simple and spirit- 
ual form, the results rather than the pro- 
cesses of Christian scholarship in relation 
to this profoundly interesting subject. 
Their publication was earnestly called for 
by those who listened to them from Sabbath 
to Sabbath, and it is humbly hoped that 
through the channel of the press, their 
timely message may reach a wider constit- 
uency; and, while not by any means ex- 
hausting the subject, or even discussing all 
the interesting questions connected with it, 
yet will be used by the Master for the great 
objects that surely are today the supreme 



vi. 



Preface. 



desire of Christ and the highest aim of ev- 
ery true minister of the Gospel, namely, the 
preparation of the Bride, the evangelization 
of the world and the hasting on of the com- 
ing of our blessed Lord and Saviour, Jesus 
Christ. 



HEAVEN OPENED. 



"Blessed is lie that readeth, and they that hear 
the words of this prophecy, and keep those things 
which are written therein; for the time is at hand." 
(Rev. i. 3). 

SUCH is God's special benediction on the 
work in which we are about to be en- 
gaged, the study of the Apocalypse. 
May we read its revelations aright; may 
we hear its wondrous words with quick- 
ened spiritual ears! and may we keep its 
warnings and commandments with holy 
vigilance and humble obedience; so that 
we shall inherit this blessing in all its 
fulness and find this last volume of in- 
spiration, not a scroll of vague un- 
intelligible mystery but a manual of spirit- 
ual and practical helpfulness, "profitable 
for reproof, for correction, for instruction 
in righteousness." 

The title of the book is deeply significant. 
The Apocalypse literally means, the unveil- 



8 



Heaven Opened. 



ing of something covered, the revealing of 
something hidden. It suggests that back 
of yonder blue firmament there is a world 
above which spiritual eyes may see, and be- 
yond the narrow horizon of human sight 
there is a future world of living, solemn 
realities profoundly affecting and concern- 
ing our present life. This book lifts the mys- 
terious veil and opens to our view those 
two infinities, God and eternity. Let us ap- 
proach the vision with deep solemnity, with 
chastened spirit and humble dependence 
upon Him who must give the sight as well 
as the light. 

It is commonly accepted that the book 
of Eevelation is too mysterious for the ordi- 
nary mind to understand, and that it is 
scarcely practical or profitable for the study 
of the unskilled and unscholarly. On the 
contrary it is here presented to us as God's 
message to all His people, with a special 
blessing pronounced on those who "read, 
hear, and keep it." Like the whole precious 
Bible it is the Book of the common people, 
and if we read it aright the Holy Spirit will 



Heaven Opened. 



9 



make it plain to the humblest capacity and 
the simplest mind. Indeed a special and 
emphatic blessing is pronounced upon this 
more than any other message of the Scrip- 
tures, and if we look carefully at the charac- 
ter and purpose of the Apocalypse we shall 
perhaps be able to understand why God has 
promised to thus bless it. 

god's last word. 

It is God's last word to His people in the 
present dispensation. Sixty-six times has 
He spoken from heaven through His inspired 
messengers. This is the last message till 
He Himself shall come and close the dispen- 
sation. Mohammedanism claims that it has 
a later message. Science and philosophy 
lightly talk about the new light of culture 
and the inspiration which exalted genius 
gives to certain men; but all their light is 
as the flashing of a meteor or the fire-fly of 
the summer night. This is the final mes- 
sage of heaven to man, and he that dares to 
add another sentence to the word of inspira- 
tion shall inherit the fearful curses pro- 



10 



Heaven Opened. 



nounced in this awful volume. With what in- 
tense interest, with what prompt obedience 
should we wait to hear God's final word as 
He speaks to us once more by His Son. 

SPECIALLY EOR OUR TIMES. 

This word is God's special message to 
the last times. It was not written for the 
apostolic age; for that had passed. It was 
not written for the Jew; for Jerusalem had 
fallen. It was given to the church and was 
intended for the church to the end of the 
Christian age. It is specially addressed to 
seven churches of Asia which represent the 
whole body of the church to the end. It is 
therefore our manual of divine instruction 
and commission and claims our special at- 
tention and careful obedience. 

It is intimated in the very terms in which 
it is given that the times for which it was 
intended were to begin immediately and 
were to be most critical and momentous. It 
starts out with the significant statement, 
"The time is at hand." Literally this means 
the crisis time is at hand. It is that Greek 



Heaven Opened. 



II 



word so specially used in the New Testament 
to indicate the time of peculiar privilege, 
opportunity and crisis. It is the same ex- 
pression used when the apostle bids us "re- 
deem the time," buy up the opportunity, 
make the most of the crisis. It is therefore a 
message written for momentous times and 
calling for the most careful attention and 
the most significant action. Well may we 
give heed to such a message. 

Christ's own revelation. 

More especially than any other message 
it is Christ's message. It was not given 
through an angel merely, although angelic 
ministry was used in connection with it, but 
Jesus Christ Himself came down personally, 
sixty years after His ascension to the Isle 
of Patmos, making a second visit to earth — 
after He had been more than half a century 
in heaven — telling with His own living 
voice to John the words of the Apocalypse, 
and speaking in His own person to the 
churches for whom the message was prim- 
arily intended. It is therefore our own Mas- 



12 



Heaven Opened. 



ter's personal message to us, the men of 
these last times, and we can see that face 
which is "as the sun shineth in his 
strength/' and hear that voice which is 
"as the sound of many waters," as He calls 
to each of us: "I know thy works. He that 
hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit 
saith unto the churches." 

AN UNSEALED VISION. 

The message which Daniel gave was 
sealed and the prophet was specially told 
that it was for later times and would not be 
understood until the end drew near. But 
a very different command is given to John, 
"Seal not the vision; for the time is at 
hand." And again, "The revelation of Jesus 
Christ which God gave unto Him, to show 
unto His servants things which must shortly 
come to pass." This is translated literally: 
-'Things which in swift, successive haste 
come to pass." The events were to begin 
immediately. The message of the Apoca- 
lypse is a present truth. The church needs 
it. The world should know it. The action 



Heaven Opened. 



13 



is suited to the word. The vision becomes 
a swift reality. The panorama is already 
moving on to its final consummation : "Write 
the vision and make plain upon tables that 
he may run that readeth it." It means ac- 
tion, preparation and co-operation with God 
and it is fitted to inspire and encourage in 
the trials and tests that we are called to meet 
and to prove as practical as it is sublime. 

GOD ? S PICTUEE OF THE ASCENDED CHRIST. 

This book gives a view of the Lord Jesus 
Christ as He is now in the heavenly world 
and on the throne. In the other books of 
the Bible, except the epistles, we see Him 
either coming or already present in the 
world; but here we behold Him in His glory 
as our Prophet, Priest and King, adminis- 
tering the government of the age, represent- 
ing His people at God's right hand, and pre- 
paring for His coming. Would we see Jesus 
as God's enthroned Lamb? Would we see 
Him in His almightiness and gentleness? 
Would we see Him as our Great High Priest 
presenting the incense of our prayers before 



14 



Heaven Opened. 



the Father? Would we see Him in His 
victorious power silencing our accusers and 
pleading our cause? Would we see Him 
making all His enemies His footstool and 
coming in His glory soon to reign? Let us 
read this prophecy and hear the words that 
are written in it; and in its sublime visions 
behold the Lamb of God, to whom it is spe- 
cially dedicated in the opening paragraph, 
"Unto Him that loved us, and washed us 
from our sins in His own blood, and hath 
made us kings and priests unto God and His 
Father, to Him be glory and dominion for- 
ever and ever. Amen." 

god's thought foe his church. 

It contains God's highest, latest and 
largest thought for the church. It is spec- 
ially addressed to the church. It reveals 
Christ's attitude to the church, and it un- 
folds the church's attitude to Christ and her 
innermost condition in the light of His search- 
ing eye. In this symbolical book the Lord ap- 
pears standing in the midst of the seven 
golden lamps and holding the seven stars 



Heaven Opened. 



15 



in His right hand. He is intensely real to 
His church and intensely interested in 
all that concerns her. He is watching 
her spirit and weighing her character 
every moment. He knows her works and 
deals with her in faithful discipline and 
stern and awful warning, as well as loving 
and gracious promise and reward. There is 
no book more fitted to arouse a slumbering 
church, to search and separate a worldly 
church, to comfort His suffering church, and 
to awaken the ministry of the church to a 
more profound sense of responsibility to God 
than these seven letters of the ascended 
Lord to the seven churches of Asia, and 
through them to the church of every cen- 
tury. 

As we shall see, these letters present a 
panorama of the whole church from the ap- 
ostolic age to the end of time, and they show 
her in all her various developments, of busy 
activity, of spiritual declension, of martyr 
suffering, of terrible apostasy, of reforma- 
tion and revival, and finally of the luke- 
warmness of our Laodicean times when the 



!6 



Heaven Opened. 



Lord is standing knocking outside the door 
of His own church and just about to come 
in judgment and glory. If we would un- 
derstand the history and the state of the 
church of Christ and know how to be true 
to God amid all the alarming conditions of 
these last times let us study this book and 
give heed to its faithful warnings. 

god's thought foe the woeld. 

This book gives to us God's thought 
about the world we live in, as well as the 
church; for after the vision of the churches 
we have the seals and the trumpets, the 
thunders and the vials and the seven-headed 
beast embodying in symbol the governments 
of earth, and the Satanic power behind their 
thrones. Man looks upon earth's kings with 
something of splendor and lustre. To God's 
mind they are wild beasts ravening and de- 
vouring. 

In varied symbolism their power, their 
wickedness, their Satanic origin and their 
awful doom are here portrayed and their end 
is the winepress of the wrath of God and the 



Heaven Opened. 



17 



battle of Armageddon, the judgment of the 
nations and the new kingdom of peace and 
righteousness with Christ alone as Lord. 

If we would understand our age; if we 
would comprehend the mingled events of 
providence; if we would know the utter cor- 
ruption of human politics, and the necessity 
of being separated from the world, and liv- 
ing as "strangers and pilgrims on earth, 
looking for a better country, that is an heav- 
enly/' let us read this book, let us hear the 
things that are written in it. and let us walk 
on earth with our heads and hearts in 
heaven. 

god's programme foe the future. 

This book contains God's plan for earth's 
future. Men are talking about the future 
of the country. They are writing their 
stocks and bonds for the twentieth century. 
They are dreaming of the marvellous things 
that the new gospel of science is to bring. 
They have their Utopian schemes, republi- 
canism and liberty, but God's plan for the 
future is very different. It is like Zecha- 



18 



Heaven Opened. 



riah's wondrous day. "Not clear nor dark, 
not day nor night, but at evening time it shall 
be light." Through clouds and darkness 
one purpose moves through all the ages; 
namely, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
earth's promised King. 

This is the key of history. This is the 
solution of every mystery. This is the goal 
of providence. This is the great consum- 
mation, to which the Apocalypse and the 
ages move. "I saw heaven opened, and be- 
hold, a white horse, and He that sat upon 
him was called Faithful and True; and He 
had on His vesture and on His thigh a name 
written, King of kings and Lord of lords. " 
"Behold! He cometh with clouds, and every 
eye shall see Him." "Even so, come, Lord 
Jesus, come quickly." 

PKACTICAL VALUE. 

This book is not visionary though it is 
the grandest of visions, but it is intensely 
practical. 

It tells us of salvation. There is no new 
gospel here of second probation, or bloodless 



Heaven Opened. 



19 



theology, but sin is as crimson as God can 
stamp it, and the blood of Jesus Christ is 
as real as the stain of sin, and the echo of 
every chorus is, "Salvation to Him that sit- 
teth upon the throne and to the Lamb." 

It tells us of a deeper spiritual life. It 
warns us against the loss of our first love. 
It rouses us from the curse of lukewarmness. 
It points us to the souls that are to enter in 
as the first fruits and the wedding guests, 
and "in their mouth was found no guile; 
for they are without spot before the throne 
of God. These they are that follow 
the Lamb whithersoever He goeth." It con- 
nects the most holy watchfulness with the 
hope of His coming and it tells us how the 
spotless robe can be obtained. "His wife 
hath made herself ready. And to her it was 
granted that she should be arrayed in fine 
linen, clean and white for the linen is 
the righteousness of saints." 

It calls to highest service. Its promises 
are to "him that overcometh." It sets be- 
fore us "an open door" and its reward are 
for those that hold fast to His truth and hold 



20 



Heaven Opened. 



forth His name. The rewards of His com- 
ing are according to our works. We behold 
among its living scenes the figure of "an 
angel flying in the midst of heaven having 
the everlasting gospel to preach unto them 
that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, 
and kindred, and tongue, and people;" and 
we see in this the symbol of the great mis- 
sionary movement in our times and the call 
to worldwide evangelization. 

It is a message of comfort and hope to 
the suffering and the sorrowing. It offers 
to the martyr a crown of life. It offers to 
the overcomer a sevenfold promise. It tells 
the mourner of a time when all tears shall 
be wiped away. It points the wanderer and 
the exile to a land where there shall be no 
more sea. The poor are reminded that some 
day they shall hunger no more, neither 
thirst any more; but their home shall be a 
city of gold and palaces surpassing the 
glory of the sun. The sick learn that soon 
there shall be no more pain, neither sorrow, 
nor crying, nor death ; and the souls that are 
sick of sin and the horrid spectacle of the 



Heaven Opened. 



21 



"open city" and the prostitution of virtue 
and innocence rejoice to know that in that 
city there shall "enter nothing that defileth, 
neither worketh abomination nor maketh a 
lie." AH will be right at last. God's rem- 
edy shall be mightier than man's ruin. 
"Where sin abounded grace shall much more 
abound, "and earth and heaven and all the 
far off universe shall yet unite around the 
throne to echo the universal chorus: "Bles- 
sing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiv- 
ing and honor and power and might be unto 
God forever and ever. Amen." 

But there is no evasion of the darker 
facts of sin and hell. Over against the vis- 
ion of glory there is the awful judgment 
and eternal abyss, and the last word of the 
Apocalypse, like the vision of Christ weeping 
over Jerusalem, is an intense and loving ap- 
peal from One, whose judgment is as inexor- 
able as His mercy is infinite, and who cannot 
save unless we believe and obey Him. "The 
Spirit and the Bride say, Come, and let him 
that is athirst come. And whosoever will, 
let him take the water of life freely." 



CHRIST IN THE APOCALYPSE. 

"Unto Him that washed us from our sins in His 
own blood, and hath made us kings and priests 
unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and 
dominion forever and ever." (Rev. i. 5, 6). 

THE testimony of Jesus is the spirit of 
prophecy, so Christ is the theme as well 
as the Author of the book of Revela- 
tion. It gives us the picture of our enthroned 
Redeemer as John beheld Him in the heav- 
ens sixty years after His ascension. It is 
therefore the picture of Christ as He is today 
and possesses a present and profound inter- 
est for every Christian heart. Let us gather 
up the scattered rays and focus them into a 
living picture of our glorious Redeemer. 

JESUS AS DIVINE. 

We behold our blessed Redeemer all 
through this Apocalyptic vision in the glory 
of the Son of God." His countenance was as 
the sun shineth in His strength." His voice 



Christ in the Apocalypse. 



23 



as the sound of many waters.'' From His 
face the earth and heaven flee away. He 
sits upon the judgment throne and the kings 
of the earth call upon the rocks and the 
mountains to hide them from the wrath of 
the Lamb. He is in the midst of the throne 
of Deity and all the universe worships Him 
jointly with the Father ascribing "glory and 
dominion, riches and honor and blessing 
unto Him which sitteth upon the throne and 
unto the Lamb." He is the King of kings 
and Lord of lords^ the divine and eternal 
Word of God. 

JESUS AS HUMAN". 

But none the less do we see Him as the 
Son of man. It is the same Jesus who lived 
and loved; suffered and died on earth. He 
uses the same old phrase in speaking to John 
the beloved that He used once on the Sea of 
Galilee to calm the disciples' fears. When 
John fell at His feet as dead He gently lifted 
him by the hand and said in the old sweet 
phrase, "It is I, be not afraid. I am He that 
liveth and was dead." Amid all the glories 



24 



Heaven Opened. 



of yonder heaven, could you look through 
the open door which John saw, you would 
behold a Man in the midst of the throne and 
in control of all the governments of the uni- 
verse and all the destinies of men. 

JESUS AS CRUCIFIED. 

There is no compromise about the theol- 
ogy of the Apocalypse. There is no at- 
tempt to evade the literal meaning of the 
cross and the atonement. The central fig- 
ure of the heavenly court is "a Lamb as it 
had been slain." The marks of Calvary are 
worn without disguise or shame. They are 
the very glory of our exalted Lord. It is 
not as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah so 
much as the Lamb, with the memorials of 
suffering, that He has power to loose the 
seals and open the book of destiny and set 
in operation all the procession of events that 
leads to the coming glory. The opening 
tribute of the beloved apostle is "Unto Him 
that loved us and washed us from our sins 
in His own blood." The description of the 
ransomed and the glorified is this: "They 



Christ in the Apocalypse. 



25 



have washed their robes and made them 
white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore 
are they before the throne of God." The 
chorous of the heavenly hosts is this, 
"Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to re- 
ceive power, and riches, and wisdom, and 
strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. 
Thou art worthy to take the book, and to 
open the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, 
and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood 
out of every kindred, and tongue, and people 
and nation." 

In one of the closing passages of this sub- 
lime book the lower criticism tried for ages to 
eliminate the language of the cross and in- 
troduce a text which might support their 
foundation for human salvation. In Rev. 
xxii. 14, the former reading "Blessed are 
they that do His commandments that they 
might have right to the tree of life and 
enter through the gates into the city," has 
been happily restored to the original text 
"Blessed are they that wash their robes 
that they may have right to the tree of 
life and enter through the gates into the 



26 



Heaven Opened. 



city." This book opens no other door, re- 
veals no other right of way, and speaks no 
other message of salvation than the blood 
of the Lamb. 

JESUS AS THE RISEN AND THE LIVING ONE. 

The very second name given to our bles- 
sed Lord in the Apocalypse, Rev. i. 5, is the 
"first begotten of the dead." He comes to us 
in this vision not in the nature of the first 
but the second Adam; not as the Christ of 
Judea and Galilee now but as the Christ of 
the open grave, the forty days and the heav- 
enly glory. He comes as the great Author 
and Leader of a new race, men that have 
passed through death with Him and entered 
into the resurrection life. This is not the 
book of the old creation, but of the new, and 
the only pathway to it is the rent veil of the 
flesh, and the only passport is to "know Him 
and the power of His resurrection and the 
fellowship of His sufferings, being made 
conformable unto His death." The inheri- 
tance revealed in this Apocalypse is for 
those who, like their Leader, have been be- 



Christ in the Apocalypse. 



27 



gotten from the dead and entered upon a 
resurrection life, dead to self and sin 
through the power of the Saviour's cross 
and blood. 

JESUS AS OUR GREAT PROPHET. 

The very first name by which He stands 
revealed in the Apocalypse is "Jesus Christ 
the faithful Witness" (Eev. i. 5). We find 
this again quoted in His address to the 
church of Laodicea, the last of His messages 
to the churches, written to an age when men 
are questioning the authority of the Scrip- 
tures and the messages of Christ. He 
stands revealed as the Truth as well as the 
Life, and God's supreme, authoritative and 
final messenger of His will to man. He is 
our great Teacher, the Light of the world, 
the Author and Finisher of our faith and 
once more in this book "God hath spoken 
to us by His Son." Let us "give the more 
earnest heed to the things which we have 
heard, lest at any time we should let them 
slip." 



28 



Heaven Opened. 



JESUS AS OUR GREAT HIGH PRIEST. 

The Apocalypse reveals our blessed Lord 
in the very array and form of the Jewish 
priesthood. He stands before us in the 
opening vision on the Isle of Patmos arrayed 
in the priestly garment and wearing the 
girdle of priestly service. And later on in 
the Apocalyptic vision we behold Him in 
the eighth chapter as the mighty Angel 
who stood over the altar having the golden 
censer and much incense that He should add 
it unto the prayers of all the saints upon 
the golden altar which was before the 
throne. It is He who represents us at the 
Father's side. It is He who takes our prayers, 
mingles with them the incense of His merits 
and His influence and secures their efficacy 
and their answer, and fills the censor with 
fire from the altar and then pours it back 
again upon the earth in the mighty results 
that come from believing prayer in Jesus' 
name. "Seeing then that we have such a 
great High Priest that is passed into the heav- 
ens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast 
our profession," and "let us therefore come 



Christ in the Apocalypse. 



29 



boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may 
obtain mercy, and find grace to help in 
time of need." 

JESUS AS THE LORD OF PROVIDENCE. 

We behold Him not only as a Priest but 
as a King. First He is our mediatorial 
King. He sits at the right hand of God 
administering the government of the world 
and exercising that authority and dominion 
by the right of His accomplished redemp- 
tion. Therefore it is He who looses the 
seals and opens the book of destiny. It is 
He who orders and arranges the events of 
providence. It is He who plans the life 
of every believer. "He is exalted to be a 
Prince and a Saviour." He is the Lord of 
all and our Lord, Head over all things for 
His body, the Church, and sitting on His 
throne and from henceforth expecting until 
all His enemies shall be made His foot- 
stool. Nothing happens without His per- 
mission. Nothing is to Him a surprise or 
an insuperable obstacle. He is turning and 
overturning and preparing His kingdom 



30 



Heaven Opened. 



amid all the vicissitudes and convulsions 
which distract the ages and perplex the 
hearts often of the saints. Christ is on the 
throne and we may trust His wisdom, power 
and love. 

JESUS AS THE KING OF THE NATIONS. 

He is specially referred to in this book 
as the Prince of the kings of the earth (Rev. 
i.5). He w r ears upon His vesture and upon His 
thigh the name "King of kings and Lord of 
lords." He is earth's true Sovereign. Not 
only is He now ruling over the domain of 
providence but He is yet to rule over the 
earth, in view of air the nations and with 
the submission of every throne, and tribe 
and tongue. He is earth's coming King 
and earth never will be at rest until He 
reigns supreme and universal Lord of lords. 

JESUS AS THE KING OF ISKAEL. 

He is here revealed as the Lion of the 
Tribe of Judah, the One who has the right 
to wear upon His escutcheon the arms of 
David and Judah. He is the Root and Off- 
spring of David. Thus He is at once his 



Christ in the Apocalypse. 



31 



Progenitor and Heir. David but represen- 
ted Him upon Israel's throne, and He is yet 
to sit there as David's natural Heir. He 
holds the key of David and openeth and 
no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man 
openeth. Very clearly does Israel's future 
destiny shine out through the lurid clouds 
of the Apocalypse and the coming age for 
which her children wait when her King 
again shall sit on Mount Zion, on David's 
throne. 

JESUS AS THE KING OF SAIXTS AND THE HEAD 
OF THE CHURCH. 

Very specially is this aspect of His en- 
throned life emphasized in the Apocalypse. 
He reveals Himself as the One who w^alks 
amid the seven golden candlesticks w^hich 
are the seven churches. He claims the 
supreme authority and control over His 
church. Very searching is the light of His 
omniscience and omnipresence. Very high 
the standard of holiness, faithfulness and 
watchfulness which He claims from her; 
very solemn are the warnings and rebukes 



32 



Heaven Opened. 



which He addresses to the unfaithful, the 
lukewarm and the lifeless. "I know thy 
works" He is saying over and over again. 
He is quick to perceive the declension of 
the life of Ephesus and to warn her of her 
impending judgment. His searching glance 
instantly detects the depths of Satan in 
Thyatira. He cannot be deceived by Laodi- 
cea's riches and pretensions. He knows 
that her heart is lukewarm and He is ready 
to spue her out of His mouth because she 
is neither cold nor hot. He is as quick to 
appreciate the faithfulness of Smyrna and 
Philadelphia and the "few names even in 
Sardis which have not defiled their gar- 
ments." Oh, how heart-tearching His flam- 
ing eye and His consuming Word. Heiswalk- 
ing among the churches. He is sitting in 
every audience and listening to the preacher, 
and He is passing through every prayer meet- 
ing and feeling its pulse; He is present at 
every business council and general assembly 
and judging of the faithfulness or worldli- 
ness of His people. He will accept but gold 
tried in the fire and when His people meet 



Christ in the Apocalypse. 



33 



Him their works shall be tried with fire and 
only that which is divine and God touched 
can pass the solemn scrutiny of the judg- 
ment seat of Christ. Let us deeply realize 
the solemn significance of Christ's presence 
and sovereignity over His church and His 
own people. 

JESUS AS OTJK COMING LORD. 

It is needless to say that this is the one 
burden of all the Book, the one outlook of 
all its visions, the one solution of all its 
mysteries, the key of history, the goal of the 
ages, the blessed hope of the church and 
the saint. "Behold He cometh with clouds" 
is its opening message. "Behold I come 
quickly" is its parting word." Maranatha 
might well be its motto, "Even so" the amen 
of His people's response. 

JESUS AS THE LIGHT AXD GLORY OF HEAVEN. 

Many a beautiful vision is given in the 
Apocalypse of the heavenly city both as it 
is today and as it shall be when all tears are 
wiped away, and all the ransomed shall 
have gathered home. But amid all the vis- 



34 



Heaven Opened. 



ions and all the ages, the central thought is 
ever this, "The Lamb which is in the midst 
of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead 
them unto living fountains of water." "They 
need no candle, neither light of sun, for the 
Lamb is the light thereof." To be with 
Jesus, to be like Jesus; this is heaven. 

JESUS AS THE L0VEK OF HIS PEOPLE. 

"Unto Him that loved us" is its opening 
ascription. More exact criticism has great- 
ly sweetened this precious word and changed 
it into an everlasting present. "Unto Him 
that loves us" is the true reading. This 
glorious Christ, this Lord of heaven and 
Lord of earth this Christ i£ our beloved 
Lord and everlasting Friend. "Having 
loved His own which were in the world He 
loved them unto the end." Amid all the 
glories of heaven His heart is ever upon us 
and His love to us can never grow old; and 
as sometimes amid the royal pageant a little 
child will leap from the arms of its nurse 
to the bosom of the queen, before whose 
majesty all others bow, so amid all the 



Christ in the Apocalypse. 



35 



grandeur of His throne, John can still lean 
upon His breast and you and I can look up 
into His face and sing 

"Jesus Lover of my soul, 
Let me to Thy bosom fly." 

JESUS AS THE LOVER OF SINNERS AND SAVIOUR 
OF THE LOST. 

For the last picture of Christ in the 
Apocalypse is one of tender compassion and 
infinite mercy to the unsaved. Bending 
from His throne above, before the hour of 
judgment strikes and the awful realities 
of this vision begin to be fulfilled, He cries in 
the one last invitation which seems to con- 
dense into deeper and tenderer meaning all 
that He ever said before "Let him that hear- 
eth say, Come. And let him that is athrist 
come," and as if He would make it easier 
still, "Whosoever will, let him take the 
water of life freely." 



THE VISION OF THE CHURCHES. 



"He that hath an ear, let him hear what the 
Spirit saith unto the Churches" (Rev. ii. 7). 

THERE is something very touching and 
solemn about the personal aspect of 
the Lord's last messages to the 
churches. It is very much the same as if 
your pastor should arise in the pulpit 
some Sabbath morning and say, "I have 
a letter from the Lord Jesus which He 
sent an Angel to deliver to me during the 
night, addressed particularly to this con- 
gregation and which He has commissioned 
me to read to you as His personal and final 
message." 

Such a message would produce a pro- 
found impression and thrill every hearer 
with a deep concern and holy earnestness. 

Each of these epistles is really a letter 



The Vision of the Churches. 



37 



from the Lord Jesus to a particular church, 
and the fact that they were addressed to 
the seven Churches of Asia does not make 
them the less personal and appropriate for 
us, for the very fact of the number seven 
being used shows that it is symbolical and 
designed to represent every church in the 
whole body of Christ to the end of the age. 

The order in which these churches are 
named represents an exact geographical line, 
so that a messenger starting out with seven 
letters to deliver would naturally begin at 
Ephesus, then go to Smyrna, and thence in 
turn to Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Phila- 
delphia and end at Laodicea. They were 
selected from the great body of the churches 
at the time to represent every particular 
congregation and the whole Church of Jesus 
Christ throughout the Christian age. 

We have already seen that the Apoca- 
lypse begins with the vision of the Lord 
Jesus Christ Himself in His ascended glory 
as our Prophet, Priest and King. It next 
proceeds to the vision of the churches and 
then passes on to the providential dealings 



38 



Heaven Opened. 



of God with the world, as Christ cannot deal 
with the world in judgment till He has first 
dealt with His church. He is Head over all 
things in the realm of nature and provi- 
dence; but He is the Head of the church 
which is His body and He governs the world 
with sole reference to His own people, there- 
fore the vision of the church must precede 
the vision of the world. In this vision we 
have 

SEVEN TYPES OF CHURCH LIFE ASTD CHARACTER. 

These seven churches represent different 
classes of ecclesiastical assemblies and Chris- 
tian congregations. Each picture is unique 
and strongly marked and we shall have no 
difficulty in finding its counterpart among 
the churches of today. 

I. We have in Ephesus the picture of 
an active and orthodox church, but a church 
the decline and which is more marked by 
whose love and spiritual life are already on 
outward organization, religious activity, 
Christian work, and great zeal for denom- 
inational truth than for simple fervor and 



The Vision of the Churches. 



39 



deep spirituality. "I know thy works/' He 
says to Ephesus, for she is chiefly character- 
ized by works; "and thy labor/' and that is 
more than works, it is hard works; "and thy 
patience," it is continued work. There are 
manifold agencies of Christian usefulness in 
this church. It has every kind of society 
from a sewing society and an entertainment 
committee up to a foreign mission board. 
It is like a hive of ceaseless industry and 
busy work. Then it is thoroughly loyal to 
the denomination and the truth. It has no 
use for heresies or lax views of doctrine. 
The ring of the pulpit is true to the old 
theology and specially true to the denomina- 
tional standards, for He says, "Thou canst 
not bear them which are evil, and hast tried 
those that say they are apostles and hast 
found them liars." 

All this is well, but, alas, there is a worm 
at the core ! There is a skeleton in the heart 
of this church. Nay, more, I have it against 
thee, everything against thee, "that thou 
hast left thy first love." This does not mere- 
ly mean the fervor of the early experience 



40 



Heaven Opened. 



of Christian enthusiasm. This may change 
to a soberer but not less spiritual tone; He 
means supreme love to Christ, the love that 
puts Him first, for this Christ will take no 
substitute or excuse. This is one of the most 
serious dangers of our time, to substitute or- 
thodoxy and activity for spiritual life, and 
it will most surely lead, as at Ephesus, to 
decay and final extinction. 

II. The next picture is very different. 
It is a blameless church. The Lord has 
nothing but praise for Smyrna. The very 
name means myrrh, sweetness, fragrance. 
This is the suffering church, persecuted for 
its fidelity to Christ, unpopular, severely tried 
in the furnace of affliction, but the pressure 
which brings out the myrrh and the suffering 
becomes the means of deeper sanctity and 
holy sweetness. How often we find some lit- 
tle flock that has been sorely tried and forced 
to maintain itself in the face of constant dif- 
ficulty, opposition and even persecution, 
held by its very sufferings closer to the Lord. 

III. The next picture is the opposite. 
It is a worldly church. Prosperity has come 



The Vision^of the Churches. 



41 



in the place of trial. It dwells where Satan 
has his seat, and Satan's seat is the throne 
of the world. It has influence, wealth, fash- 
ion, culture and every earthly advantage on 
its side, and the result is compromise, fellow- 
ship with the unfruitful w T orks of darkness, 
the banquet, the festival, worldly and forbid- 
den pleasure, licentiousness, the doctrines 
of the Mcolaitanes which allow looseness of 
life along with a high profession, and the 
more dangerous doctrine of Balaam, which, 
failing to destroy the people by open attack, 
seduced them into unholy alliances with the 
people of the world. And so we find this 
church at the theatre, at the dance, and cele- 
brating the mixed marriages of its daughters 
with the men of the world, and aping the 
attractions of social entertainment and even 
of the very stage itself to draw the crowd 
to its door. Of course it is popular. Of 
course it draws. Of course wealth and cul- 
ture and fashion throng its aisles and pews, 
but Christ says, "Repent, or I will come unto 
thee quickly, and I will fight against thee 
with the sword of My mouth. " 



42 



Heaven Opened. 



IV. The next picture is the corrupt 
church. It is Thyatira. It is also full of 
works, and charitable works, and the last 
are more than the first. The farther its 
heart gets from God the busier its hands be- 
come in the activities of ritualism; but at 
the heart the leaven of corruption has long 
been working, and its leading type is "that 
woman Jezebel" the old sorceress of Si- 
donia who teaches its people to commit for- 
nication, and to sacrifice unto idols, and in 
its secret councils are found "the depths of 
Satan, as they speak." 

This verse reveals a whole world of sub- 
tle sophistry and unholy spiritualism. It is 
that false mysticism that calls good evil 
and evil good; which cloaks wickedness 
under the guise of spiritual leading; which 
commits sin in the very name of the Holy 
Ghost, and which claims indulgences for the 
grossest violations of right by simply per- 
forming some religious penance or paying 
some high price for a mass or indulgence. 
It is not hard to find this type in the story 
of Eomanism, Eitualism and Spiritism. 



The Vision of the Churches. 



43 



V. We now reach an advanced type of 
this downward grade. It is in the Church 
of Sardis which represents utter spiritual 
death. It is a dead church. It still has a 
great name to live, but it is dead. There is 
no conscience that you can appeal to. There 
is no sense of fear or shame. It is sunk 
into carelessness and formalism and is like 
the poetic picture of the ship at sea, frozen 
stiff on the Arctic Ocean with a dead man 
standing at the helm and a dead man on the 
bridge and a dead man at every post while 
the ship drifts on as usual on her course. 
So many a church is moving through the age 
with a dead man in the pulpit, and dead 
men in the pews and dead men in the com- 
mittee rooms, living by a kind of momentum 
given to it long ago when in a state of life 
and fulfilling like an automaton the law of 
habit without the power of a true spirit- 
ual life. 

VI. But now there is a sudden and de- 
lightful change. The Church of Philadel- 
phia is the revival church. Here all is diff- 
erent. There is life and loyalty to Christ. 



44 



Heaven Opened. 



It is a feeble church; "Thou hast a little 
strength." But it is true to His Word, His 
Name, His work. We have seen such 
churches that seem to be strong in proportion 
to their natural weakness and blessed just 
because they have nothing to depend upon 
but God. 

VII. But once again the picture 
changes and the church in Laodicea repre- 
sents the lukewarm church. Here all is 
moderatism, respectability and ease. It is 
self -satisfied, delightfully estimable, and 
free from all extravagances and extremes. 
Thoroughly adjusted to the spirit of the 
age; but to Christ it is simply offensive and 
intolerable and He is about to reject it as a 
nauseous and disgusting drug, and rescue 
from its midst the few faithful ones that 
are willing to be true. 

Such are the seven types of the church 
life to be found in every age, and found in 
the more objectionable forms more fre- 
quently today than ever before. 



The Vision of the Churches. 



45 



SEVEN PROPHETIC ERAS. 

These seven churches of Asia represent 
not only the various phases of church life 
but successive epochs of Christianity. The 
progression is so true to life that we cannot 
doubt that the Lord was giving a designed 
forecast of the conditions of His Church 
from that period to the end of the age. A 
glance at the inspired picture and the cor- 
responding chapter of church history can 
leave no doubt in any candid mind of the 
striking and complete resemblance. 

I. The church in Ephesus represented 
the condition of things in the Apostolic Age. 
Then the church was in the meridian of her 
prosperity, full of activity and zealous for 
the truth. But already we find traces in 
the apostolic writings indicating that her 
spirit was beginning to decline. Paul was 
compelled to declare in his epistle to Tim- 
othy that all that were in Asia had turned 
away from him ;and even John complained 
in one of the latest epistles that he had 
written to the church but Diotrephes who 
loved the pre-eminence had refused to re- 



46 



Heaven Opened. 



ceive him. The old apostles had become 
obsolete in the more cultivated and progres- 
sive age of prosperity and the church had 
already left her first love. 

II. This was followed by the perse- 
cuting age, Smyrna. The ten days of perse- 
cution which the apostle speaks of may per- 
haps refer to the ten great persecutions of 
the first three centuries. Certainly we know 
that this was the second chapter of Chris- 
tian history, and it was a very terrible one, 
and in the furnace of affliction the church 
became separated from the world, purified 
and deepened in her spiritual life and power. 

III. Then came the next transition, the 
Age of Pergamos, the age of prosperity and 
worldly power and influence on the part of 
Christ's people. Constantine, the great em- 
peror of Rome became a Christian on the eve 
of his most signal victory and immediately 
after his accession to the throne Christian- 
ity was proclaimed the religion of the state 
and of the world and the first great Chris- 
tian emperor summoned the followers of the 
once despised Christ to gather together at 



The Vision of the Churches. 



47 



Nice for the first great Council of the age. It 
was a strange sight to see men come together 
from dens and caves of the earth — many of 
them doubtless scarred and partly dismem 
bered, bearing the marks of hideous suffer- 
ing. It was a strange sight for them to see 
the symbol of the cross and the banner of the 
empire side by side, and the mighty ruler of 
the world standing up as the presiding offi- 
cer of the great Council, and leading that 
vast multitude to the feet of Jesus Christ 
in reverent worship. 

Immediately the great heathen temples 
were transformed into Christian sanctu- 
aries. Priests, presbyters and bishops were 
elevated to be princes and councillors of 
state, and it became true that the church 
dwelt where Satan's seat was, the imperial 
throne. Then came the state banquets, the 
eating of things sacrificed to idols, the mix- 
ture of the people of God with the world, 
and the baneful effects that Balaam brought 
of old in the corruption of Israel. The 
church fell through her very prosperity and 
leaning on the arm of flesh forgot the sim- 



48 



Heaven Opened. 



plicity and singleness of her consecration 
to God. 

IV. It was not long before the more 
fearful condition of Thyatira followed that 
of Pergamos. Close upon the heels of the 
world always comes the devil, and the depths 
of Satan followed quickly the worldliness of 
Pergamos. This is the picture of the rise 
of the Papacy with its manifold supersti- 
tions and deep corruptions. "That woman 
Jezebel/' who stands out from the picture 
of Thyatira as the central figure is the ap- 
propriate type of the Apostate church, the 
harlot of revelation, the corrupter of the 
ages. 

V. In due time this is followed by the 
condition of Sardis, the dead church, the 
darkness and settled apostasy of the Middle 
Ages. This is the picture of Sardis and this 
was the state of the Church of Rome and most 
of the churches of Christendom for well nigh 
a thousand years, when the very exceptions 
were "the few names even in Sardis" of such 
men as Wycliffe, Huss, Cranmer and Luther 
wh( had not "defiled their garments" but 



The Vision of the Churches. 



49 



who were living in protest against the evils 
of their time. 

VI. Suddenly w r e come to a bright and 
glorious age. It is the Church of Philadel- 
phia and it corresponds to the Church of the 
Reformation. The features of this church 
are very distinct. The very name suggests 
brotherly love. It is not a strong church. 
"Thou hast a little strength." It is always 
in the minority with God. It is particularly 
noted for its devotion to the word of God. 
"Thou hast kept My Word." This was the 
banner and the armor of the Reformation 
Church. It emancipated the Bible and made 
that Bible the terror of the Apostate church. 

It is next marked by its devotion to the 
Name of Jesus. The person of Christ is exal- 
ted. It is not so much a denomination, a 
church, as the Christ to whom all the life 
of the church should ever crystallize and 
who should stand like Saul, head and should- 
ers above every organization, every leader, 
every man. It is marked also by an open 
door, a faithful service and a glorious work 
for God. 



50 



Heaven Opened. 



Now at this point it is well to observe 
that while these different churches represent 
special eras of history yet they run on 
through the next era to the end of the chap- 
ter like seven rivers running into one great 
central stream, each distinct and yet all 
flowing on together to the end. This is the 
conception of the panorama of the Apoca- 
lypse. Therefore, the Church of Philadel- 
phia does not end where Laodicea begins 
but runs on through the period to the close. 

It is remarkable that this church is char- 
acterized by one other feature; namely, it is 
a pre-millennial church. It expects the 
Lord's coming. It is holding fast its testi- 
mony and trust, that no man take its crown, 
while the Master whispers, "Behold, I come 
quickly," and promises that this church shall 
be kept from the hour of tribulation which 
is to come upon the face of the whole earth. 
Therefore it reaches on to the coming of the 
Lord Jesus Christ and gathers into it the 
Bride of the Lamb, educating her and pre- 
paring her for His glorious appearing. But 
before the end another development of the 



The Vision of the Churches. 51 



organized church appears upon the stage; 
namely — 

VII. The Church of the Laodiceans. 
This represents the apostasy of Protestant- 
ism and the liberal movement which is start- 
ing out in these last days from a true centre 
but is developing and is yet to develop 
toward the end the worst features of the 
false church movements of the past. It is 
the blending of the spirit of Ephesus with 
the worldliness of Pergamos, the corruptions 
of Thyatira and the deadness of Sardis. 

The first striking feature of this modern 
church is that it is no longer recognized by 
Christ as His Church but as "the church of 
the Laodiceans." It belongs to them. They 
have made it after their pattern and for their 
pleasure. The Lord will have none of it, but 
stands outside its door calling for those who 
will yet escape to receive Him and be ready 
for His coming. This is the second sad 
characteristic of it — that Christ is outside. 
He is represented as standing and knocking, 
and it is not usual for one to knock inside 
the door. This is a Christian Church, but 



52 



Heaven Opened. 



is so full of itself and the world that it has 
no room for the Lord within. We cannot 
call this an ideal picture when we remember 
the statements made by many of the leading 
teachers of modern Christianity to the effect 
that it is not necessary to believe in the 
blood of Christ or the divinity of the Saviour 
to be a true Christian. 

Another characteristic of this church is 
its wealth, its prosperity, its popularity, and 
its utter self-complacency. The very name 
Laodicea means to "please- the people/' 
and it certainly is quite pleased with itself 
for its language is: "I am rich and increased 
with goods, and have need of nothing.'' 

But its most marked feature is its utter 
indifference. It is too respectable to go to 
any religious extreme. A hallelujah is not 
heard within its courts and any undue earn- 
estness and intensity of feeling is regarded 
as bad form, fanaticism or sensationalism. 
It is guaged exactly to suit the people. It 
apes the attractions of the theatres and yet 
takes good care to close its services in time 
to let its members go to the opera if they 



The Vision of the Churches. 



53 



want to after the prayer meeting. It has 
studied out well the old maxim, "Be not 
righteous overmuch." It takes good care to 
keep religion in its place on Sunday morn- 
ings and not allow it to infringe upon the 
week's business, society or pleasure. It is 
a thoroughly comfortable, easy-going, selfish 
and fashionable religious club, and the Lord 
has become so sick of it that he is about to 
spue it out of His mouth as a loathsome 
and offensive nuisance. It has at last reach- 
ed the stage where He any longer refuses to 
recognize it as His church at all. He has 
gone to live with the little flock at Phila- 
delphia, and He has said to proud Laodicea 
as she pursues her self-complacent way 
without Him: "Behold, your house is lett 
unto you desolate." 

A CHURCH WITHIN THE CHURCH. 

All through these letters we behold a 
third picture. It is a little minority in each 
of these corrupt churches to whom the Lord 
speaks His words of gracious promise and 
approval. There are some of them in Per- 
gamos. There are some of them in Thya- 



54 



Heaven Opened. 



tira. There are some even in Sardis that have 
not defiled their garments, and He is trying 
to gather some of them even out of Laodicea; 
and while He does not expect the church to 
reform He is rescuing the individual believers 
who are willing to hear His voice and meet 
His claims. Two things characterize these: 

1. They are described as "He that hath 
an ear to hear what the Spirit saith unto the 
churches." They are the men and women 
that know the voice of God and are hearken- 
ing to His voice and meeting His call. 

2. They are described as "He that over- 
cometh." The word in the Greek is more 
significant still. The conqueror would be a 
more expressive translation. They are men 
and women that have gone in for victory in 
an Apostate Age over both the sufferings 
and seductions that surround them, and, 
whatsoever others do, as for them they will 
be true and win the victor's crown. 

Now it is most remarkable and solemn 
that in these epistles, and especially in the 
last one the Lord seems to have abandoned 
the hope of saving the church as a whole 



The Vision of the Churches. 



55 



and is seeking now to save the individual. 
The whole body has become hopelessly cor- 
rupt and the remnant alone are to be saved. 
This was the case in the closing days of the 
Old Testament when God had to turn from 
Israel and Judah to Daniel, Ezekiel, Nehe- 
miah, and the faithful ones and twos of that 
last time. So it will be in the end of this 
age. We do not say that that hour has yet 
come in the history of the church but it is 
coming and we may well prepare for it. 
Sometimes it seems very near. The last days 
are to show how much God can accomplish 
by consecrated individuals who will utterly 
believe in Him and wholly obey Him. We 
shall never see a single perfect church on 
earth till the Lord comes. The church is 
but a scaffolding on which He is building 
the unseen temple which is yet to rise with 
the jewelled walls and pearly gates of the 
new Jerusalem. Each of us may be a stone 
and the Lord is calling us one by one to hear 
His voice, to open the door to receive Him, 
to overcome and sit with Him on His 
throne. 



56 



Heaven Opened. 



THE RELATION AND THE REVELATION OF THE 
LORD JESUS TO THE CHURCHES. 

Christ's attitude toward these various 
forms of church life is very distinctly re- 
vealed and very solemnly significant. 

1. He holds their ministers in His hands 
controlling, protecting, directing. Oh, faith- 
ful minister of Christ, He holds thee by the 
hand. What hast thou to fear? Oh, brother, 
He holds thy brother's hand, be careful how 
thou wrong Him by a word or act of wrong. 

2. He walks in the midst of the 
churches. He is always present continually 
in the midst of His people, He listens to 
every sermon, He looks at every entertain- 
ment. He is in touch with all our busy life. 

3. He searches and inspects His 
churches with eyes like a flame of fire. He 
is looking us through and through, and He is 
ever saying: "I know thy works;" for He 
judges. How heart-thrilling are the words 
in which He speaks of His discipline toward 
His unfaithful people. "Repent," He cries 
to Ephesus, "or I will come to thee and re- 
move thy candlestick out of its place." "Re- 



The Vision of the Churches. 



57 



pent," He cries to Pergamos, or "I will come 
unto thee and fight against thee with the 
sword of My mouth." "Repent," He cries 
to Thyatira, or "I will cast thee into a bed, 
and them that commit adultery with her 
into great tribulation, and I will kill her 
children with death." "Repent," He cries 
to Sardis, or "I will come on thee as a thief, 
and thou shalt not know what hour I will 
come upon thee." And to Laodicea He cries 
"As many as I love, I rebuke, and chasten; 
be zealous therefore, and repent." Repent 
or I will spue thee out of My mouth." This 
is no weak and effeminate Christ. This is 
no sentimental and indulgent Being against 
whom we can sin with impunity, but this is 
the stern heart-searching and mighty God 
who will render unto every one according to 
his works. 

We must also notice the names and titles 
under which He reveals Himself to these 
churches. They correspond exactly with the 
state of the church. To Ephesus, He is the 
one who holds the seven stars in His hands 
and walks in the midst of the seven golden 



58 



Heaven Opened. 



lamps. To suffering and martyred Smyrna, 
He is the One who liveth and was dead, and 
for whom death has no terrors. To com- 
promising Pergamos who needed the separa- 
ting sword, He is the One that hath the 
sharp sword. To Thyatira with her subtle 
deceitfulness, He is the One whose eyes are 
a flame of fire and whose glance no impos- 
ture can deceive. To dead Sardis, He is the 
One that has the seven spirits of life, able 
to give life even to her. To Philadelphia, 
He is the One with the key of David about 
to open the door of return to Israel and to 
establish His kingdom on earth. And to 
Laodicea, the last of the seven, He is the 
"Amen/' God's last word. 

But in contrast with this it is blessed to 
observe that He not only comes to judge, 
but to reward. How blessed the promises 
that He gives in these letters to the con- 
quering ones. How rich and heavenly the 
exquisite symbolism by which our hearts 
are tempted to turn from earth's delusions 
and win the crown He brings. "To Him 
that overcometh," He says, "I will give the 



The Vision of the Churches. 



59 



tree of life which is in the midst of the Para 
dise of God." "Be thou faithful unto 
death." He cries to Smyrna, "And I will 
give thee a crown of life." Let go the forbid- 
den bread, and the forbidden love of earth 
and sin, He says to Pergamos, and I will 
give thee "the hidden manna" of heaven, and 
the white stone of the palace of the King, 
My card, with My own new name of love 
written on it for you alone to understand. 
Let go the false and fascinating promise 
which the devil holds out to Thyatira — false 
power, false light, and I will give you, at My 
coming, power over the nations, and the 
true light of the morning star and the eter- 
nal glory. And to the faithful ones in Sar- 
dis where all was so corrupt and dead, He 
offers the white robe and the public accla- 
mation of their names before the Father and 
the holy angels. To little Philadelphia al- 
most the richest promises of all are held 
out; namely, that her enemies shall be 
brought to worship at her feet, and to know 
that He has loved her, that she shall be 
saved from the hour of tribulation which is 



60 



Heaven Opened. 



coming upon the whole earth, that she shall 
receive the crown that He is to bring and 
shall become a pillar in the temple of God 
with the name of God and Christ and the 
New Jerusalem upon her brow. But to Lao- 
dicea, the most faithless, He offers the most 
tender and magnificent promises of all. It 
would seem as if her very unworthiness 
drew out His tenderest compassion and chal- 
lenged the most magnificent inducements 
which He could offer her to turn away from 
her folly and her sin. Instead of denouncing 
condemning and commanding He falls upon 
His knees at her very door, He knocks at 
her closed gates, He beseeches her to let Him 
in. He cries with locks wet with the dew of 
the morning; "Behold I stand at the 
door and knock; if any man hear My 
voice and open the door, I will come in to 
him, and sup with him, and he with Me." 
And then He crowns it all with that grand- 
est of all His promises. Just about to come 
in all His glory and rear His millennial 
throne over the great world, He cries: "To 
him that overcometh will I grant to sit with 



The Vision of the Churches. 



01 



Me in My throne, even as I also overcome, 
and am set down with My Father in His 
throne." Oh, matchless condescension! Oh, 
marvellous and glorious grace! How shall 
we escape if we neglect or despise that plead- 
ing tenderness, that precious promise? 



THE THRONE, THE LAMB, AND THE 
SEALS. 

"After this I looked, and behold a door was 
opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard 
was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; 
which said, Come up hither, and I will show thee 
things which must be hereafter" (Rev. iv. 1). 

WE HAVE seen the vision of the Lord 
Jesus Christ and the Church of 
Christ. We are now to behold the 
vision of the world up to the coming of the 
Lord Jesus Christ and the plan of God with 
respect to it as set forth in the seven seals. 
Before, however, the seals are opened and 
the plan of God's providence is unfolded we 
have a vision of the throne in heaven and the 
enthroned Lamb who is to administer the 
execution of the divine plan and the opening 
of the seven seals. 

There has been much discussion about 
the place of this section in the panorama of 
the future. There are some who believe that 



The Throne, the Lamb and the Seals. 63 

from the fourth chapter on, the revelator is 
referring exclusively to things yet future 
and to events which are to come to pass 
after the Parousia. Those who hold this 
view apply the words in the first verse of 
the fourth chapter, "Come up hither/' to 
the translation of the Bride, and regard 
them as the call to the prepared ones who 
shall be found waiting for the return of the 
Lord to ascend to the throne through the 
door which John saw opened in heaven. 

This is very much strained and most un- 
natural in every way. The call to come hither 
was not a call to the glorified, but it was a 
special call to the seer to behold things 
which he was to see in vision, and when he 
did ascend it was not a literal translation, 
but immediately he adds, "I was in the 
spirit." It was a spiritual vision of the 
heavenly world. 

To make it still more certain that this 
chapter does not refer to events after the 
coming of the Lord, the four living creatures 
in their adoration refer to God as "Him 
which was, and is, and is to come." This 



64 



Heaven Opened. 



expression so frequently repeated in the 
Apocalypse seems to look directly forward 
to the Advent, and its being repeated by the 
glorious beings who worship around the 
throne clearly intimates that the time of the 
coming has not yet occurred. This is the 
more marked when we consider the fact that 
in the eleventh chapter, where they again 
worship God and the Lamb, they change 
this expression and leave out the clause, 
"which is to come." 

This does not appear in the authorized 
version, but in the revised version of Revela- 
tion xi. 17, which contains the true and ac- 
cepted reading, it is, "We give Thee thanks, 
O Lord God Almighty, which art and wast 
because Thou hast taken to Thee Thy great 
power and has reigned." 

It is certain, therefore, that the Lord's 
coming occurs somewhere between the 
fourth and the eleventh chapter, but had 
not occurred when these beings uttered their 
adoring ascription in the fourth chapter. 
There seems no doubt that this chapter sim- 
ply describes the throne of God as John be- 



The Throne, the Lamb and the Seals. 65 

held it in heaven at the commencement of 
the great series of events which immediately 
followed Christ's ascension and led on 
through the Christian age to the consum- 
mation in the Lord's coming. It is the 
scenery, as it were, of the mediatorial gov- 
ernment and plan of God. It marks the be- 
ginning of the Christian age and leads up to 
all the events symbolized by the seven seals. 

And so we behold the Father seated upon 
His throne in all His eternal glory, with the 
adoring hosts of the heavenly sanctuary and 
the glorious w 7 orship of the celestial world, 
while the Son under the image of the Lamb 
slain ascends and takes His place by His 
side on the throne and begins to open the 
seals and solve the mystery of the ages as 
the great Redeemer and mediatorial King. 

Let us look briefly at the Throne, the 
Lamb and the seals. 

THE THEONE. 

1. The Throne. It is the throne of God 
in heaven. It is the seat of sovereignty. It 
is the symbol of supremacy and government. 
The surroundings are majestic and glorious, 



66 



Heaven Opened. 



but He that sits upon the throne is inde- 
scribable, and there is no attempt to paint 
a picture of His person or His ineffable face 
save that He was like a jasper and sardine 
stone^ the jasper, the most brilliant gold, 
and the sardine, the most vivid crimson or 
scarlet. They were the royal colors and em- 
blematic of splendor and glory. 

The surroundings of the throne were all 
in keeping with the majestic vision. There 
was a rainbow round about the throne like 
unto an emerald. This was the symbol of a 
covenant God, and told the glorious story that 
judgment was past, and that God was now 
dealing with men on principles of mercy. 
The rainbow was all around the throne. It 
was not the half circle of our incomplete 
firmament but the completed sphere of God's 
perfect plan and finished redemption. 

The emerald color marks the tint of earth 
and suggests that the purpose that is to be 
wrought out from the throne in connection 
with the vision has reference to the green 
earth where man dwells and where Jesus 
died. 



The Throne, the Lamb and the Seals. 67 

The sea of glass that stood before the 
throne tells of the deep, calm purpose of 
God, the power that moves unruffled and re- 
sistless through all the ages working out 
His sovereign will. 

The seven lamps before the throne were 
symbols of the seven-fold power of the Holy 
Spirit, and show that the purpose that was 
to be wrought out was not connected merely 
with the natural government of the world, 
but was to be a spiritual plan under the di- 
rect agency and through the infinite re- 
sources of the Holy Ghost. 

Still more marked were the living forms 
around the throne. Seated upon thrones 
were four and twenty elders. These corre- 
spond to the twenty-four courses of the Jew- 
ish priesthood, and they seem to denote an 
order of heavenly worshippers, priests of 
the heavenly sanctuary. Many have sup- 
posed that they were representatives of the 
redeemed standing for the twelve tribes of 
Israel and the twelve apostles of the Lamb. 
But this is improbable. The argument for 
their human character is usually the lan- 



68 



Heaven Opened. 



guage of the song they sing in the ninth 
verse of the fifth chapter: "Thou hast re- 
deemed us to God by Thy blood out of every 
kindred and tongue and people and nation/' 
etc. The true reading, however, nullifies the 
force of this argument by taking the word 
"us" quite out of the passage and making the 
redemption apply to others. If this chapter 
describes a period anterior to Christ's com- 
ing, as we have already assumed, and as 
seems certain from the heavenly ascription, 
"Unto Him who was and is and is to come'' 
(iv. 8), then it is out of place to regard these 
beings as redeemed men, for the redeemed 
have not yet attained their place of glory 
before the throne but are waiting until Jesus 
comes and the number of the elect shall be 
completed when all together will be crowned 
and glorified. 

Still nearer to the throne were four living 
creatures corresponding to the symbolical 
beings that we find all through the Bible 
from the gate of Eden and the tabernacle 
in the wilderness down to the visions of 
Isaiah and John. In any case they are heav- 



The Throne, the Lamb and the Seals. 09 

enly beings and not human beings, and they 
seem to be part of the sanctuary above and 
its glorious worship. 

THE LA^IB. 

II. The Lamb. For soon the centre of 
interest in yonder throne becomes personi- 
fied in a single figure. The inspired apostle 
beholds a strange spectacle of suspense in 
the heavenly court. He that sat upon the 
throne was holding in His right hand a book 
or scroll, written over in every part, both 
within and without, yet sealed with seven 
seals; a scroll which no one could read and 
no one could fulfill. It seems to represent 
God's plan of destiny for man, and there was 
no one able to work it out. The universe 
was at a deadlock. As John beheld this 
strange perplexity and suspense he began to 
weep, until suddenly one of the elders ad- 
dressed him and bade him dry his tears for 
One had appeared who was to open the book 
and loose the seals. He described Him as 
the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of 
David. And as John turned to behold Him, 
suddenly there stood before him and in the 



70 



Heaven Opened. 



midst of the heavenly scene, not a lion in 
his majesty, but, as the Greek finely ex- 
presses it, "a little lamb as it had been 
slain," with the marks of blood upon it and 
yet with the glory of infinite wisdom and 
power back of all its gentleness and low- 
liness expressed by seven horns of power 
and seven eyes of wisdom, which told the 
story of infinite resources and the seven-fold 
light and power of the Holy Ghost which are 
under the direction and control of this en- 
throned Lamb. 

It was a scene of unspeakable dramatic 
power and interest. It is said that once in 
in the Roman Coliseum a crowd was wait- 
ing, as there stood a martyr in the midst of 
the arena, for a roaring Numidian lion to 
burst from its cage and devour the holy 
saint, when suddenly, as a little piece of play 
for the amusement of a Eoman crowd, the 
keeper led forth from the stable under the 
galleries not a lion but a lamb, which 
stepped up and licked the hand of the mar- 
tyr, while the crowd thundered out its sur- 
prise and applause. 



The Throne, the Lamb and the Seals. 7' 

More majestic infinitely is this heavenly 
scene as He who has all power and glory, 
instead of ostentatiously displaying His 
greatness, presents Himself in all the sim- 
plicity and humiliation of the cross and its 
shame, and undertakes to solve the prob- 
lems of destiny and wield the sceptre of the 
universe, not as the Lion, but as the 
Lamb. 

Immediately He becomes the centre of 
attention, and forth there bursts from all 
the choirs of heaven and all the myriads of 
earth and sea the sublimest chorus of adora- 
tion ever heard in earth or heaven. First, 
the living creatures and the elders fall down 
before the throne and sing a new song com- 
posed especially for that grand occasion, 
saying, "Thou art worthy to take the book 
and open the seals thereof, for Thou wast 
slain and hast redeemed men unto God out 
of every kindred and people and tongue and 
nation, and hast made unto God a kingdom 
of priests and they shall reign upon the 
earth." 

Then as the song reaches the outer cir- 



72 



Heaven Opened. 



cle of angels, ten thousand times ten thou- 
sand, and myriads whose numbers could not 
be told, take up the chorus and they sing, 
"Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to re- 
ceive power and riches and wisdom and 
strength and honor and glory and blessing/' 
And as the echoes of their song go ringing 
out and resounding back from the courts of 
heaven and the realms of immensity, still 
farther out there comes another chorus 
"from every creature which was in heaven," 
and there seemed to be other creatures there, 
"and on the earth and under the earth, and 
such as are in the sea]" every created voice 
seemed to join in the anthem, "Blessing and 
honor and glory and power be unto Him 
that sitteth upon the throne and unto the 
Lamb forever." 

The mighty song has rolled through 
space and echoed along the galleries of 
heaven, and as the echo comes back the four 
living creatures answer with their mighty 
response, "Amen," and deeper and higher 
than all speech or song the four and twenty 
elders fall down in prostrate silence and 



The Throne, the Lamb and the Seals. 73 

worship Him that liveth forever and for 
ever. 

THE SEALS. 

III. The seals. But next the interest 
moves on even from the blessed Lamb Him- 
self to the great task He has undertaken. 
He takes the book out of the Father's 
hands, and as He looses the seals one by one 
and unfolds the scroll lo, a series of events 
begins to take place on earth and a proces- 
sion of mighty providences moves down 
through the age to the end. These are the 
successive events that are to follow each 
other up to the coming of the Lord. They 
are described in the sixth and seventh chap 
ters of Revelation. 

As each of the first four seals are opened 
in succession there is a strange and mighty 
voice goes up from one of the living crea- 
tures, the single word, "Come." Not "Come 
and see," as our version, but "Come." It is 
the keynote of all the history of this book. 
It is the deep undertone of all the thought 
and teaching of the Apocalypse. It is the 



74 



Heaven Opened. 



meaning of the seals expressed in one un- 
utterable word, "Come." 

What is the specific meaning of each 
seal? The first four present a general re- 
semblance to each other. In the first we 
behold a white horse, and he that sat upon 
him armed with a bow going forth conquer- 
ing and to conquer. The second shows a red 
horse and he that sat upon him crimsons 
the earth with carnage and war. The third 
presents a black horse, and behind him fol- 
lows famine and destruction. The fourth 
is a livid horse, and he that sat upon him 
was Death, and Hell came hard behind. 
These four horses and their riders represent 
successively the destructive forces of the 
early centuries, the conquering power of 
Rome, the carnage of the revolutions that 
followed, the horrors of famine that came 
with the inroads of the Barbarians, the ter- 
rors of the Middle Ages and the crowning 
holocaust of death which filled up and fin- 
ished the picture. 

As the fifth seal is opened the cry of the 
living creature ceases, but instead there 



The Throne the Lamb and the Seals. 75 

comes a deep moan from the souls of the 
martyrs under the altar. They echo the 
same old cry, but more plaintively for their 
voice is, "How long, O Lord, holy and true 
dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood 
on them that dwell on the earth?" It is the 
vision of persecution and suffering for Jesus' 
sake. It is the story of the Roman martyrs 
and the Papal martyrs. It is the picture of 
the suffering church under the ban of a cruel 
world and it leads on far through the age. 

Next comes the sixth seal, and lo, as it 
breaks and the scroll unfolds there is a sud- 
den catastrophe. It seems for a moment as 
if the end had already come. There is a 
great earthquake. The sun is black and the 
moon is blood. The stars of heaven fall and 
the heavens roll up like a scroll, while moun- 
tains and islands are shaken and the king- 
doms and peoples of earth are filled with 
terror, and cry to the rocks and mountains to 
fall on them and hide them from the face of 
Him that sitteth on the throne, for the great 
day of His wrath seems to them to have at 
last come, and who shall be able to stand? 



76 



Heaven Opened. 



Yes, it would seem that this is at last the 
end. But no, not quite. Just on the eve of 
the catastrophe it is suspended for a little 
while, and four mighty angels who hold the 
cyclone of judgment that is about to strike 
the earth are commanded to hold back a lit- 
tle longer until tw 7 o necessary things are 
done. 

First is the sealing of Israel's tribes, an 
elect number out of each. The Jew is to 
pass through the tribulation time, and God 
has already told us in Zechariah and Daniel 
that a certain number of His chosen people 
are to be preserved through the fire of that 
awful day. These are now sealed. Some 
mark is put upon them by which their lives 
shall be inviolate during the terrible times 
that are to come. 

But what is the next great scene? What 
means this mighty throng that suddenly 
have appeared before the throne and the 
Lamb? A great multitude out of all nat- 
ions and kindreds and peoples and tongues, 
clothed with white robes with palms in their 
hands, shouting Salvation to Him that sit- 



The Throne, the Lamb and the Seals. 77 

teth upon the throne and to the Lamb. 
John asks in wonder, and is told that these are 
redeemed men, not Jews, but men of every 
nation, that have come up out of the great 
tribulation that is already beginning, and 
are now before the throne and the Lamb. 

This is the rapture of the saints. This 
is the translation of the waiting Bride. This 
is the blessed hope for which we are told 
to watch and wait and stand prepared. God 
grant that w T e may understand it, be ever 
ready for it and at last be found in that 
happy company. 



THE TRUMPETS AND THE TRIBULATION 

"And the seventh angel sounded; and there were 
great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of 
this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, 
and of His Christ; and He shall reign forever and 
ever." Rev. xi. 15. 

THE opening of the seventh seal leads to 
a new series of developments in which 
seven angels appear upon the scene 
with seven trumpets, and as they succes- 
sively sound them judgment after judgment 
rolls over the earth, until at length the sev- 
enth angel sounds his trumpet and the heav- 
enly voices proclaim the mystery finished, 
the crisis over, the tribulation ended and the 
kingdoms of this world transformed into the 
kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. It 
is quite certain from the close of the series 
that it leads right up to the millennial ap- 
pearing and reign of our Lord. Therefore, 
the series must represent the tribulation 
time and the judgments which it is to bring 
upon the earth. This is still more evident 



The Trumpets and the Tribulation. 79 

when we bear in mind the interpretation 
already given to the section immediately pre- 
ceeding, which we have seen represents the 
first coming of our Lord and the translation 
of the saints just prior to the opening of the 
seventh seal. That, as we have seen, 
gives us the vision of the sealing of the 
tribes of Israel on earth and the translation 
of the saints of heaven. 

Of course, it must be conceded that much 
of the prophetic description of this w T hole per- 
iod must necessarily be more or less obscure. 
The exact nature of these terrific events can- 
not be comprehended until their fulfilment. 
At the same time the general features of this 
period can be plainly discerned, and these 
four chapters, Revelation viii. to xi., give 
us a general view T of the various judgments 
that are to roll over the deserted earth dur- 
ing these terrible times. 

I. It will be noticed that this whole ser- 
ies of judgments is preceded by an impres- 
sive hush of awful silence that fell upon the 
heavenly world for half an hour. This was 
perhaps the hush before the storm. It was 



80 



Heaven Opened. 



also perhaps one of God's mighty pauses, 
marking the close of one great period and 
the beginning of another. God punctuated 
the dispensation with a mighty period, and 
heaven stopped to take its breath before the 
beginning of the next chapter of the proph- 
etic scroll. 

II. Next comes the solemn offering up 
of the prayers of all the saints by the mighty 
Angel who seems to represent the Lord 
Jesus Christ, the heavenly High Priest. It 
would seem as if these prayers had been long 
accumulating, and now, at last, were sol- 
emnly summed up and formally presented 
before God for His answer. It was a mighty 
holocaust of prayer. The cries of the mar- 
tyrs under the altar, the tears and sighs and 
breathing of the saints that had been treas- 
ured up in vials before the throne are now 
taken by Christ Himself, and formally pre- 
sented before His Father, while He claims 
that the answer long deferred shall now at 
length come and this world shall be taken 
out of the hands of the wicked, and given 
over to Christ and His saints. 



The Trumpets and the Tribulation. 81 

As these prayers are formally presented 
to God they are next poured back upon the 
earth mingled with coals of fire from the 
sacred altar, and as they fall upon the earth, 
lo, there are voices, thunderings, lightnings 
and an earthquake, and the seven angels 
bearing their seven trumpets prepare them- 
selves to sound their notes of solemn warn- 
ings of judgment. 

How beautiful and encouraging the pic- 
ture here given of the power of prayer! Long 
may our supplications wait before they seem 
to be fulfilled but God has not forgotten 
them, and every breath of true intercession 
shall yet reach the Father's ear. Indeed, 
perhaps the hush of silence that fell upon 
the heavens was in order that nothing might 
interrupt the hearing of these prayers. How 
comforting to know that, notwithstanding 
the imperfections of our petitions our great 
High Priest presents them, mingled with His 
perfect incense and makes them acceptable 
even amid the purity of yonder heaven! 

But still more striking and impressive is 
the picture of the return of these prayers to 



82 



Heaven Opened. 



earth again as they come back from the heav- 
enly altar, and become the mighty and mov- 
ing forces that set in operation the whole 
procession of angelic ministries, and earthly 
providences that is to usher in the reign of 
Christ. 

III. Next we behold a series of natural 
judgments upon the physical realm repre- 
sented by a storm of hail and fire mingled 
with blood, and cast upon the earth by 
means of which the trees and grass are 
burned up and the earth is scorched and 
withered. This follows the sounding of the 
first trumpet and marks the beginning of the 
tribulation judgments. 

IV. The second angel sounds, and we 
next behold a series of national judgments; 
a great mountain burning with fire is cast 
into the sea and part of the sea becomes 
blood and many of its living creatures perish 
and multitudes of the ships that crowd its 
waters are destroyed. A mountain always 
represents a great nation and this undoubt- 
edly describes some tremendous political 
convulsion, which covers the earth, and es- 



The Trumpets and the Tribulation. 83 

pecially the sea, with blood and deso- 
lation. 

V. The third angel sounds his trumpet 
and there conies a series of ecclesiastical 
judgments. A great star falls from heaven 
burning like a lamp, named "wormwood/' 
and as it falls upon the rivers and fountains 
of waters they become bitter, and multitudes 
die from their poisonous draughts. The 
star represents an ecclesiastical leader and 
power. Some false teacher, some mighty 
leader of religious excitement or fanaticism, 
or, perhaps some of the existing systems of 
error is permitted to scourge the earth with 
delusion, perhaps with persecution as in the 
awful days, when Islam offered to many the 
Koran, or the sword. 

VI. The fourth angel sounds his 
trumpet and now the sun is smitten, and 
the moon and the stars, so that a third of 
their light is obscured, and men walk in 
darkness and confusion. This may repre- 
sent an intellectual and social scourge and 
the obscuring of the human mind, the pos- 
session by the intellect and reason of man, 



84 



Heaven Opened. 



by some fearful delusion, some form of mania 
or madness of some terrible error that leads 
men into every excess and crime. We have 
seen such things before and how much more 
terrible they can become in earth's last times 
when the holy are withdrawn from the earth 
and the devil is supreme, one can scarcely 
imagine now. 

These first four warnings and judgments 
are but the precursors of still more terrible 
plagues that are soon to follow; and so, before 
the next angel sounds, a voice is heard an- 
nouncing in the heavens, "Woe, woe, woe to 
the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the 
other voices of the trumpet of the three 
angels, which are yet to sound.' 

VII. The fifth angel now sounds his 
trumpet, and, lo, a star falls from heaven 
representing another spiritual force. This 
time it would seem to be one of the fallen 
angels, one of the spiritual rulers of the dark 
underworld for immediately is given to him 
the key of the bottomless pit, and there 
pours forth from the depths of hell a smoke 
so dense that the sun and air are darkened, 



The Trumpets and the Tribulation. 85 

and out of the smoke there sweeps over the 
earth a brood of locusts like scorpions whose 
power is exercised, not over the grass or 
trees, but upon the bodies of men who have 
not the seal of God in their foreheads. They 
have not the power to kill but only to tor- 
ment, and their torture is so terrible, that, 
"in those days shall men seek death, and 
shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and 
death shall flee from them." 

A description is given of these terrible 
tormentors which will be like horses with 
crowns upon their heads and faces like men, 
with hair like women and teeth like lions. 
They are winged creatures and the sound of 
their wings is as the sound of horses and 
chariots running to battle. They have stings 
in their tails and they have a king over them 
who is the angel of the bottomless pit, and 
whose name is Abaddon and Apollyon. 

How this brood of hell can be identified 
as any body of men who have ever yet 
scourged this earth, whether Saracen or 
Turk we cannot imagine. To us they seem 
to represent some diabolical swarm of tor- 



86 



Heaven Opened. 



mentors and destroyers from the very depths 
of hell, such as can only be understood when 
the prophetic vision is literally fulfilled. 

We know already that the germs of dis- 
ease are living things. Science has described 
the minute creatures that grow up in the 
human form until they have consumed and 
destroyed it with malignant sickness; and 
we know from the Scriptures that these 
sources of disease are not merely earthly, 
but they are devilish, too, for Satan is the 
author of disease and these myrmidons are 
but his servants. If, in this age, he is able 
so to torture the human form with sickness 
how much more may this become the case 
when all the restraints of this dispensation 
of grace shall be removed, and the floods of 
hell shall be let loose in the last days upon 
the devoted earth. 

VIII. The sixth angel next sounds his 
trumpet, and four great angels of judgment 
are loosed from the river Euphrates, and an 
army of two hundred thousand thousand, 
that is, two hundred million, marches forth 
to inflict upon men the last of the tribulation 



The Trumpets and the Tribulation. 87 

judgments. This army is too vast to be 
identified with any chapter of past history 
and it is too devilish to be compared with 
Turkish Pashas and modern potentates, 
These soldiers strike men with infernal fire 
and brimstone, and this judgment is the let- 
ting loose of all the power of hell on an im- 
penitent world; for, notwithstanding all 
these judgments, earth's inhabitants still 
repent "neither of their murders, nor of their 
sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of 
their thefts." 

IX. The series of tribulation judgments 
is arrested at this point for a little while 
and we next behold the future of this dark 
and dreadful time with peculiar interest. It 
is the witnessing for God of the few faithful 
ones who still represent on earth the cause 
or truth and righteousness. The tenth and 
eleventh chapters of Eevelation give us an ac- 
count of the two witnesses. Who these wit- 
nesses are has been one of the puzzling 
questions and exegetical battles of the cen- 
tury. Even so wise and great an interpreter 
as Dean Alford is not ashamed to confess 



88 



Heaven Opened. 



his inability to explain who they are. It 
seems enough for us to know that they are 
witnesses for Christ, and that in these dark 
times there shall be those on earth who will 
not be afraid to speak for God and sacrifice 
life itself in their fidelity to the truth. 

These witnesses will be clothed with 
mighty power. They shall be endowed with 
all the gifts of the Spirit and the seal of 
God shall be upon their heads and hands in 
all the signs of wonders of the apostolic 
ministry. They may be two individuals, per- 
haps Enoch and Elijah, coming back again 
to earth. Perhaps John himself may be 
one of them for it is intimated in the 
eleventh verse of the tenth chapter that he 
shall prophesy again before many peoples, 
and nations, and tongues and kings. Or, it 
may be that they represent two churches 
or two companies of believers, one the Jew- 
ish people sealed and saved and true to 
Christ during the tribulation times; the 
other, the remnant of the Gentile church, 
the tribulation saints who had not been 
caught up at the rapture, in the seventh 



The Trumpets and the Tribulation. 89 

chapter, but who have come to Christ or 
come nearer to Him during these trying 
times. At least we know that there shall 
be witnesses, and they will be true, The 
power of God will rest upon their testimony; 
and at last their lives will be laid down as 
the seal of that testimony, and a wicked 
world will greatly rejoice because at last 
their power is destroyed and there is no 
voice left to rebuke them for their sins. 

But suddenly, these martyred witnesses 
are raised from the dead and they stand 
upon their feet before their persecutors, and 
a great voice from heaven calls them, "Come 
up hither," and they ascend to heaven in a 
cloud in the sight of all their enemies. This 
is followed by fearful convulsions, a great 
earthquake in which the city falls and mul- 
titudes are destroyed, and men in terror, and 
perhaps repentance, fall upon their faces 
and give glory to the God of heaven. 

This resurrection of the witnesses seems 
to represent the taking up of the tribulation 
saints to the Lord in the air to join the trans- 
lated ones who had already been caught up. 



90 



Heaven Opened. 



And this resurrection scene closes the 
events of the tribulation, and is immediately 
followed by the final catastrophe and the 
appearing of the Lord in the glory of His 
reign, 

X. The tribulation time will be a time 
of special interest and severe trial to the 
Jewish people, therefore they appear very 
prominently in these chapters. We see the 
apostle commanded to take a measuring rod 
and measure the temple of God and the 
altar and them that worship therein; but 
the court which is without the temple he is 
commanded to leave out and measure it not, 
for it is given unto the Gentiles, and the 
holy city shall they tread under foot for 
forty and two months. Here we see a very 
clear representation of the down-treading of 
Jerusalem and the afflictions of God's 
chosen people, but, at the same time, of the 
security of those that are within the temple 
and under the protection of His covenant 
and seal. 

According to other Scriptures it seems 
certain that Israel shall be one of God's 



The Trumpets and the Tribulation. 91 

chief witnesses during these days of trial. 
"I will bring a third part of them," He says 
in Zeehariah, "through the fire, and will refine 
them as silver is refined, and will try them 
as gold is tried." And again in Daniel we 
are reminded that there shall "be a time of 
trouble such as never was since there 
was a nation even to that same time: 
and at that time thy people shall be deliv- 
ered, every one that shall be found written 
in the book." 

XI. At length the seventh trumpet 
sounds, and, lo, is it the signal of the coming 
of the Lord. The mystery is finished, the 
crisis is passed, the Lord is here, and the 
result is described not so much by a dram- 
atic scene representing the events them- 
selves as by a shout that rings throughout 
the heavens; "The kingdoms of this world 
are become the kingdom of our Lord and 
His Christ; and He shall reign forever and 
ever." 

Exactly what is meant by this event is 
made more clear in the ascription of wor- 
say, "We give Thee thanks, O Lord God Al- 



92 



Heaven Opened. 



mighty, which art, and wast; because Thou 
hast taken to Thee Thy great power, and hast 
reigned. And the nations were angry, and 
Thy wrath is come, and the time of the 
dead, that they should be judged, and that 
Thou shouldest give reward unto Thy ser- 
vants the prophets, and to the saints, and 
them that fear Thy name, small and great; 
and shouldest destroy them which destroy 
the earth." 

We learn from this that 

a. The Lord has already come because 
the phrase "Which art to come" is omitted 
from the seventeenth verse in the correct 
reading. It would be out of place because 
He has come. 

b. The reign of Christ on earth has be- 
gun. "Because Thou hast taken to Thee 
Thy great power, and hast reigned." 

c. This is not a time of gradual conver- 
sion among the nations but a sudden shock 
by which they have been surprised and 
broken; for we read, "The nations were an- 
gry and Thy wrath is come." It is the prop- 
hecy of the second Psalm, the breaking of 



The Trumpets and the Tribulation. 93 



the nations "as a potter's vessel and with a 
rod of iron." 

d. This is the time of the resurrection 
of the dead as we are distinctly told in the 
eighteenth verse, "The time of the dead that 
they should be judged." 

e. This is the time when the saints of 
God are to be rewarded, "Thou shouldst give 
reward unto Thy servants the prophets and 
to the saints, and to them that fear Thy 
name, both small and great." We know the 
time of reward for the saints and servants 
of God is at the coming of the Lord Jesus to 
reign upon the earth. 

It is very comforting to note that these 
rewards are not wholly for the prophets and 
distinguished servants of God, but for "all 
that fear His name both great and small." 
The most of us, therefore, if we are but faith- 
ful shall have a part in that blessed hope and 
glorious recompense. 

f . It is the time when earth's oppressors 
destroyers, and false rulers shall be set 
aside for it is added, "that Thou shouldest 
destroy them that destroy the earth." It is 



94 



Heaven Opened. 



quite certain, therefore, that it means the 
final crisis, the end of the age, the judgment 
of the nations, and the setting up of Christ's 
millennial throne. 



THE MOTHER CHURCH AND THE MAN- 
CHILD. 

'And there appeared a great wonder in the heav- 
en, a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon 
under her feet, and upon her head a crown of 
twelve stars; and she being with child cried, tra- 
vailing in birth, and pained to be delivered" (Rev. 
xii. 1. 2). 

THE prophetic cycle was completed with 
our last subject. The panorama led 
up to the climax, the very coming of 
the Lord Jesus, and so far as the sequence is 
concerned, the Apocalypse might have closed 
at that point, and we should have had a 
complete vision of the age in its general out- 
line up to the point where the story is re- 
sumed in the ninteenth chapter of Kevela- 
tion, and carried on through the millennium 
and the new heavens and earth in the last 
three chapters. 

But the survey has been a hurried one 
and now the vision pauses for a little and 



96 



Heaven Opened. 



goes back over the period that has been 
swiftly traversed, and draws a number of 
special pictures of scenes and incidents 
which had been rapidly passed oyer. To 
illustrate it perfectly, it is like the insertion 
of a number of vignette pictures around a 
great central picture — the central picture 
representing the principal scene and the oth- 
ers a number of minute details. 

The chapters which follow from the 
twelfth to the eighteenth inclusive give us 
a number of special pictures of important 
characters and scenes throughout the Chris- 
tian age. Chief among these is the Church 
of Christ and her counterfeits, especially the 
systems of worldly power and ecclesiastical 
corruption that have risen up during the 
age and been channels and special instru- 
mentalities for the corruption or destruc- 
tion of the True Church of Christ. 

These systems of evil are described by 
a number of striking figures; such as, "the 
seven headed Beast," the other Beast "with 
two horns like a lamb," "Babylon," "the Har- 
lot sitting on the beast," and the special 



The Mother Church and the Manchild. 97 

judgments and plagues by which this sys- 
tem of iniquity is at last to scorch and de- 
stroy. 

THE MOTHEE CHUECH. 

In this beautiful picture the whole body 
of God's people in every age is set forth. 
This woman represents the great invisible 
Church of God from the first believer down 
to the latest age. The figure of the Woman 
leads on later to the figure of the Bride. 

This woman is clothed with the sun, the 
imagery representing her as illumined by 
the light of God, the Holy Scriptures, the 
Holy Spirit, the light and beauty of holi- 
ness. All the sources of her light are heav- 
enly and she shines in the reflected light of 
God Himself. This is but an adaption of 
an Old Testament figure. This is but the 
response of the church to the summons of 
Isaiah: "Arise, shine, for thy light is come, 
and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." 

Again, the moon is under her feet. The 
moon represents the lesser light of earth and 
night. She has been lifted above the need 
of earthly light. She had put her feet upon 



98 



Heaven Opened. 



the pride of intellect, the wisdom of man, 
the self-sufficiency and self-consciousness of 
earthly culture and human agencies or vir- 
tues. Like the Tabernacle of old which had 
no windows but received its light from the 
sevenfold lamp, so her light is all divine and 
her glory the reflection of her God. 

Again, she is crowned with twelve stars. 
These stars represent, as we are taught in 
the previous chapters, the ministers and offi- 
cers of the Church of God. Her glory is the 
light of holy character, men and women who 
have adorned the pages of her history and 
reflected the light of holy character and 
heavenly power. 

THE DEAGON. 

Over against this beautiful figure of the 
woman stands the impious form of the seven 
headed Dragon. He is introduced to us in 
this message by many reputations and many 
names. There is no doubt about his iden- 
tity. He is called "the Devil," and "Satan," 
"That old serpent that deceiveth the whole 
world." It is the great ruler of the under- 



The^Mother Church and the Manchild. 99 



world and the head of the principalities and 
powers of the kingdom of darkness. 

Of his greatness there can be no doubt. 
He apes the sovereignity and authority of 
God Himself. He has seven heads corres- 
ponding to the earthly powers which repre- 
sent him. He has ten horns, the instru- 
ments and agencies by which he strikes and 
pushes his assaults and advances. The 
numbers seven and ten are symbolical of per- 
fection and they represent the completeness 
of his resources and equipment. He is not 
almighty or infinite; but he is only less than 
God. 

He has seven horns upon his seven heads 
and he claims universal empire and even 
presumes to defy the very throne of heaven 
itself. It is added that his tail drew the 
third part of the stars of heaven and did 
cast them to the earth. Surely this de- 
scribes the fall of the angels who were 
swept from their high estate to follow in the 
track of this mighty rebel and to share his 
everlasting doom. 

Of his wickedness there can also be no 



100 



Heaven Opened. 



doubt. He stands before us in this picture 
ready to destroy and devour. He refuses to 
be expelled from the holy presence of 
heaven. He is the great Adversary, who de- 
ceiveth the whole world; and the subtle ser- 
pent who represents all the depths of malig- 
nity and treachery. It is the great enemy of 
God and man — Satan, whose existence and 
reality no one can doubt who has ever re- 
belled against his authority and refused to 
obey his wicked will. 

THE MANCHILD. 

There now appears upon the scene a fig- 
ure that engrosses much of the interest of 
the whole scene. It is the First Born of 
this glorious woman, her illustrious Seed. 
He is here described by a peculiar Greek 
word which literally means a "male son." 
It is not an ordinary son nor an ordinary 
man but it is a man representing in a pecu- 
liar sense the qualities of manhood and in 
some sense a representative man, the Man 
of men. Does it not at once recall the ex- 
pression which our blessed Lord so often 



The Mother Church and the Manchild. 101 

used about Himself, the Son of Man, the rep- 
resentative Man, the One who crystallized 
and summed up in Himself the race. 

We know there have been many theories 
about this Manchild and perhaps the most 
plausible is that which applies the figure 
to a special company of holy men and wo- 
men who are to be separated unto God in 
the last days and specially called to be the 
Bride, the first fruits, the called-out ones, 
who shall be the first to go up to meet the 
Lord in the air. 

The first impression which this interpre- 
tation gives to the average mind is one of 
strain and repulsion. It is not easy to think 
of the great plan of God and the stupendous 
prophecies of Himself for whose fulfillment 
the ages have waited, being monopolized by 
a little company of self-constituted elect 
ones in the very last days of the Christian 
age. God's plan is too large and His 
thought too great for this. The interpreta- 
tion is unworthy of the character of the 
description. Surely no one else than Jesus 
Christ Himself, the Son of God and the Son 



102 



Heaven Opened. 



of man is worthy of all that is predicted of 
this wondrous Child. Let us assume this 
application first and not take a less one so 
long as it satisfies the description and pre- 
diction of this chapter. 

How perfectly the first description ap- 
plies to Him. He is to rule all nations with 
a rod of iron. This is the very promise of 
the second Psalm which is strictly Mes- 
sianic. "Thou shalt break them with a rod 
of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces 
like a potter's vessel/' 

Next, He is born of the Church of God, 
the first great issue of the glorious Woman. 
At first it may seem a little strained to rep- 
resent Jesus Christ as at once born of the 
Church and yet the Husband of the Church. 
But there is a very real sense in which 
Christ was the outcome and issue of the 
Old Testament Church. He is distinctly 
called the "Seed of the woman/' and He was 
born of the faith, love and hope of the whole 
body of the Old Testament saints. It is no 
more strained to apply this to Christ than to 
speak of Him as at once "The Root and Off- 



The Mother Church and the Manchild. 103 



spring of David." It is a very true and 
beautiful figure to think of the Old Testa- 
ment church as receiving from God the con- 
ception of the coming Redeemer, cherish- 
ing, nurturing, maturing the thought, the 
hope, the promise of the coming Saviour 
until at last it ripened into fulness and was 
born into the Incarnate One. In a very real 
sense the Lord Jesus Christ was given to 
the faith of the mother that bore Him and 
the little flock that waited for redemption 
in Jerusalem. 

Then again, the "remnant of her seed" 
are spoken of later in the passage and we 
know that these mean the brethren of the 
Lord Jesus, the other members and children 
of the mother church who shall be added 
in due time down to the end of the age. The 
figure becomes symmetrical and complete 
when we think of Him as the Elder Brother 
and these as "the remnant of her seed," 

Still further notice that the Dragon was 
waiting to devour this Child as soon as He 
should be born. How literally this was ful- 
filled in the cruel purpose of Herod as He 



104 Heaven Opened. 



waited for the life of Jesus at Bethlehem and 
when he failed to find Him, massacred all 
the little ones in Bethlehem in the hope of 
destroying Christ also. 

Notice again that the Manchild is caught 
up to God and His throne. This is applied 
by our friends, who hold the view above re- 
ferred to, to the translation of this little com- 
pany of saints just before the Lord's coming. 
But the translation of the saints will not 
take them up to the throne of God. It will 
only take them into the air where Christ 
shall meet them. But Christ was literally 
caught up to God and to His throne and 
ever since has been sitting there at the right 
hand of God. 

Notice again how perfectly the account 
of the war in heaven, which we shall refer to 
later, agrees with the facts that immediately 
followed Christ's ascension. That glorious 
ascension settled all claims against the be- 
liever, silenced the Adversary and Accuser, 
and led to his expulsion from heaven to the 
lower earth where he has ever since been 
seeking to destroy the Woman and her seed. 



The Mother Church and the Manchild. 105 



THE CONFLICT. 

The conflict begins on earth with the at- 
tempt of the Dragon to destroy the Man- 
child. This may well represent Satan's at- 
tack upon the Lord Jesus Christ personally 
from His cradle to His cross. 

It next appears in the heavens after 
Christ's ascension when the Dragon and his 
angels are cast out by Michael and his an- 
gels, and a loud voice is heard proclaiming: 
"Now is come salvation, and strength, and 
the kingdom of our God, and the power of 
His Christ; for the accuser of our brethren 
is cast down, which accused them before our 
God, day and night." 

This picture is very real and in perfect 
harmony with Christ's Ascension as given in 
other parts of the New Testament. Up to 
the time of Christ's ascension Satan had ac- 
cess to heaven as the accuser of the breth- 
ren. Their debt was still recorded against 
them, the redemption price had not been 
paid and Satan had grounds for his assaults. 
But when Christ ascended and presented the 
ransom and claimed the discharge of all the 



106 



Heaven Opened. 



liabilities of His people on account of His 
finished work, then Satan was silenced, his 
case was gone, there was nothing more that 
he could say against the brethren and so he 
was dismissed from the heavenly court, and 
when he refused to leave, the heavenly ar- 
mies were turned upon him and he and his 
followers were hurled from the skies and 
cast out into the earth. Since that day no 
voice has dared to speak a word of accusing 
against any believer in the Lord Jesus 
Christ. We are without fault before the 
throne and our glorious commendation is 
this, "Who is he that condemneth? It is 
Christ that died, yea, rather, who is risen 
again, who is even at the right hand of God, 
who also maketh intercession for us." This 
passage is almost a parallel passage to the 
present chapter, and presents exactly the 
same view of the effect of Christ's ascen- 
sion in the vindication of His people. 

The scene of the conflict now shifts to 
the earth and it is turned against the wo- 
man, the Church. The dragon persecutes 
the woman and she flees into the wilderness 



The Mother Church and the Manchild. 107 

from the face of the serpent. He pursues 
her and casts out of his mouth a flood of 
waters that he might sweep her away. This 
represents the floods of barbarous nations 
always represented by the troubled waters 
of the sea, who came up against civilization 
and Christianity in the fourth and fifth cen- 
turies, and for a time threatened to sweep 
away from earth the last vestige of true re- 
ligion. The wild myriads that swept down 
upon the plains of Italy, and the Moslem 
hordes that rolled across the plains of Asia 
obliterating churches, Christian institutions 
and every vestige of the religion of Jesus 
Christ, may well be represented by these 
floods of waters that the dragon poured out 
against the woman. 

But we are told that the earth helped 
the woman. This represents some national 
and political agency employed by God to 
counteract these wild invasions. While the 
waters represent the disorganized people, 
the earth represents the stable nations. God 
used these nations as a bulwark against 
the incursions of wild fanaticism. 



108 



Heaven Opened. 



As a single example we have but to re- 
call the crisis hour in Europe when the Mo- 
hammedans had swept across from Africa 
and the armies of Europe and Asia met on 
the plains of France and the victory of 
Charles Martel practically saved Christian- 
ity from extinction. The earth helped the 
woman. The organized Christian nations 
were God's bulwark against the wild waves 
of Satan's rage and earth's convulsions. 

Then we are told the Dragon, unable to 
destroy the Woman, went forth to make war 
with the remnant of her seed which keep the 
commandments of God and have the testi- 
monies of Jesus Christ. The remnant of her 
seed are individual Christians who stand 
true to God amid the hate of Satan and the 
oppositions of the world. The scene of the 
battle now is this earth, and as the heavens 
behold this battlefield a great cry goes up: 
"Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of 
the sea; for the devil is come down unto you, 
having great wrath, because he knoweth 
that he hath but a short time." This is the 
battle that is raging today and every man 



The Mother Church and the Manchild. 109 

and woman that stands true to the com- 
mandments of God and the testimony of 
Jesus Christ will feel its terrible force. 

The weapons of our warfare in this ter- 
rible conflict are shown in the eleventh 
verse: "They overcame him by the blood of 
the Lamb, and by the word of their testi- 
mony; and they loved not their lives unto 
the death.' 5 There are three weapons in 
this warfare. The first is the atoning blood 
of Jesus Christ, which we can never com- 
promise or dishonor if we would expect vic- 
tory in the crisis of these last days. 

The second is the Word of God, be- 
lieved and witnessed to — the Word as a per- 
sonal experience and the testimony of one 
that has proved it and knows it to be true. 

The third weapon is the spirit of self-sac- 
rifice. This is but another name for love. It 
is the fire of heroism, the ardour that con- 
sumes the life of self and makes the heart 
a living sacrifice for the cause to which it is 
devoted. It is this that gives victory in 
earthly conflicts. It is the hero who wins, 
the man who stakes all upon his venture 



MO 



Heaven Opened. 



and flings himself headlong into the 
depths of danger and the jaws of destruc- 
tion. And in the battle of the Lord nothing 
can conquer but heroic self-sacrifice, Christ- 
like love, the love that if it were the call to- 
day could die for Christ, the love which not 
being called to die can live for Christ and 
put our life into the cause He has put into 
our hands. It is the holy man, the holy wo- 
man, the holy heart poured out for our trust 
and our testimony. It is earnestness. It 
is sacrifice. This is the secret that explains 
every glorious and glorified life. Back of 
the story of achievement and success there 
is an altar fire where a heart has been con- 
sumed and gone up as an odor of sweet- 
smelling savour to God and for mankind. 

It is the old story of the Scottish girl 
who had been so strangely changed from a 
selfish belle of society, the butterfly of fash- 
ion, the queen of her little circle of folly, 
admired and worshipped by her votaries and 
living only for herself, suddenly transformed 
into an angel of love and a messenger of 
blessing, forgetting herself and living for 



The Mother Church and the Manchild. 



in 



others, bearing upon her face the light that 
never shone on earthly skies. No wonder 
people wondered and the old women said 
she had given her heart to some noble mis- 
sionary, and this was the secret of the 
change. They were doubly sure because 
she wore upon her breast a little locket 
whose secret no one had ever seen. At last 
her devoted life burned itself out, and the 
hectic flush told of the sacrifice that should 
soon be finished. Before she died she called 
her bosom friend to her side and handing 
her the sacred locket she charged her to keep 
it sealed until she closed her eyes in death 
and laid her dust to rest, and then, she said, 
"Go alone to your room, open it upon your 
knees and may it mean as much to you as it 
has meant to me." The tender charge was 
faithfully fulfilled, the last offices of affec- 
tion and sorrow were finished, and home 
from the city of the dead that lone and 
broken-hearted one came to her little room, 
and after a flood of tears had subsided she 
threw herself upon her knees and opened 
the sacred jewel. 



112 



Heaven Opened. 



There was no face within that golden 
frame; there was no human name; but 
printed in golden letters on a little band of 
satin were the words, "Whom having not 
seen we love." 

That was all and — that was everything. 
That was the Hero that had won her heart. 
That was the glorious attraction that had 
lifted her from selfishness to loving sacri- 
fice, from a fluttering summer flower to an 
angel of love and a saint in glory. God 
give us all, if we will dare to have it, the 
heavenly talisman, the Passion Sign of the 
cross, the love of Christ, and may it be true 
of us, "They overcame by the blood of the 
Lamb, and the word of their testimony; and 
loved not their lives unto the death." 



THE TWO BEASTS. 



"And he stood upon the sand of the sea, and I 
saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven 
heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten 
crowns, and upon his heads the name of blas- 
phemy." 

"And I beheld another beast coming up out of 
the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and 
he spake as a dragon" (Rev. xiii. 1, 11). 

WE HAVE seen the true church of God, 
His representative on earth. We 
are now to see the counterfeit, the 
devil's representative on earth. In the vision 
of the Apocalypse it takes the form of many 
symbols. Later on it appears as Babylon, 
and again as a vile Woman sitting on a wild 
beast, the antithesis of the holy woman in 
chapter xii. In this chapter it is presented 
to us under the image of two Beasts. 

In order to get at once to the heart of the 
subject we will premise that these two 
Beasts represent respectively the secular 
and ecclesiastical powers by which the devil 



H4 Heaven Opened. 



has sought to destroy the Church of Christ 
and build up his own kingdom on earth. 
Let us immediately turn our attention to 
these two powers. 

The first is described as a Wild Beast 
rising up out of the sea having seven heads 
and ten horns. He is further described as 
a composite creature, part leopard, part 
lion, part bear, and the imagery at once re- 
calls the vision of Daniel in which he saw 
the four great empires of the world respec- 
tively under the image of a lion, a bear, a 
leopard and a monster that seemed com- 
posed of the attributes of all other fearful 
creatures. The difference between this vis- 
ion and Daniel's, is, that here they have sev- 
en heads while there there were but four. 
We infer, therefore, that while this describes, 
substantially, the same world-power, yet it 
looks farther back in the history of the 
world to the very beginning of this world- 
power, and on the other hand looks farther 
down to its last development. We shall in- 
quire immediately what these seven heads 
mean. It is sufficient at present to identify 



The Two Beasts. 



115 



the picture generally with Daniel's vision of 
the great empires of the world. 

As the scene unfolds, numerous particu- 
lars are added. It is a blasphemous power. 
It is a universal dominion. One of its heads 
is wounded to death and then soon after 
succeeded by another and thus the wound 
is healed. It makes war with the saints 
and overcomes them and its dominion con- 
tinues through forty-two months, or 1260 
prophetic days, that is, years. Let us look 
at these points in detail, meanwhile pre- 
mising again that this wild beast represents 
the universal empires of the world from the 
beginning to the end, the successive heads 
of the worldwide authority and power 
through which Satan has ruled the earth 
and sought to destroy the cause of God. 

THE POLITICAL WILD BEAST. 

This Beast rises out of the sea. Now the 
sea always represents the great masses of 
earth's peoples and tongues, the hordes and 
myriads of teeming tribes not yet organized 
as nations. Later, in the 11th verse, we see 



116 



Heaven Opened. 



another beast coming up, not out of the 
sea, but out of the earth, which represents 
the organized political powers of the earth. 
But out of the primitive and disorganized 
masses of the world's population there grew 
up seven great forms of worldwide domin- 
ion, crystallized around certain cities and 
certain human leaders. 

IT HAD SEVEN HEADS. 

These we believe represent the seven suc- 
cessive forms of worldwide dominion. The 
first of these was the Egyptian power which 
for ages was the great oppressor of the peo- 
ple of God and the devil's chosen instrumen- 
tality for opposing and defying Jehovah. 
Egypt was Satan's ancient throne and it 
was against the gods of Egypt that Jehovah 
took vengeance when He sent the Egyptian 
plagues by the hand of Moses. 

Assyria was the second. Around the 
centre of mighty Ninevah, it stretched out 
its scepter to the confines of the world, 
again and again invading Palestine, finally 
destroying Samaria, taking the Ten Tribes 



The Two Beasts. 



117 



captive and blotting out the kingdom of Is- 
rael from the page of history. 

The third of these seven heads was, of 
course, Babylon. And now our course be- 
comes very plain, for Daniel has given us 
all the others but one, and not only revealed 
the image but its interpretation. 

The fourth was Medo-Persia, the power 
that conquered Babylon and expanded its 
empire over a still wider realm. 

The fifth was Greece, or Macedonia, the 
mighty empire of Alexandria that subdued 
and succeeded Persia and stretched out its 
borders still farther over the mighty East. 

The sixth was colossal Borne, mightier 
than them all. But who is the seventh? 

Shall we turn to the seventeenth chapter 
and find the solution there in the tenth 
verse? "There are seven kings or king- 
doms; five are fallen." These five are Egypt, 
Assyria, Babylon, Persia and Greece. These 
all were fallen when John wrote the Apoca- 
lypse. "One is." That was old Borne which 
was then existing. "And the other is not 
yet come." That was the seventh. Then 



118 



Heaven Opened. 



we are told in the eleventh verse the devil 
himself was to come in person and be the 
eighth head and last. 

Now this seventh head was the one that 
succeeded old Rome. What earthly power 
took the place of the empire of the Caesars? 
It is not hard to answer. The story of the 
Middle Ages tells us that the mightiest sov- 
ereignty of the world for a thousand years 
was the Papacy, not now considered as a 
church, but as a civil power, an organized 
dominion with a triple crown on its head, 
an army, and a right to use all the other 
armies of the world to carry out its behests. 
This is the seventh head of the beast, and 
the eighth is the devil incarnate who will 
wind up the series. 

THE TEN HOKNS. 

What are these? We have already learn- 
ed from Daniel and his two visions of the 
ten toes and the ten horns, that they repre- 
sent the smaller kingdoms and political sys- 
tems that were to come upon the stage after 
the fall of Eome. It is a fact that after the 



The Two Beasts. 



119 



empire of the Caesars fell it was succeeded 
by a lot of broken states which have contin- 
ued to divide what remains of the old Ro- 
man empire up to the present day. Now, in 
the seventeenth chapter of Revelation and 
the twelfth verse, John tells us that these 
"ten horns are the ten kings or kingdoms 
which receive power as kings one hour with 
the Beast. These have one mind and shall 
give their power and strength unto the 
Beast. " There we see these ten powers exist- 
ing and working co-ordinately with the Pa- 
pal power, assisting it and maintaining its 
cause. We shall be led more fully into this 
view of the subject when we come to the sev- 
enteenth chapter. Meanwhile the light it 
sheds upon these horns is sufficient to iden- 
tify and explain them. If we look at the 
map of Europe today we shall find that 
there are just ten powers, counting those 
states as one which belong to the same fam- 
ily and race. They are Russia. Turkey, 
Scandinavia, including Sweden and Norway, 
the Netherlands including Belgium and 
Holland which have always been associated, 



120 



Heaven Opened. 



Spain and Portugal which are also practi- 
cally one, France, Germany, Austria or Aus- 
tro-Hungary, Italy and Great Britain 
with her colonies and children, ten in all. 

THE WOUNDED HEAD AND ITS HEALING. 

One of the heads was wounded to death. 
This vividly describes the fall of Imperial 
Eome by the successive onslaughts of the 
barbarians until at last, when the city fell, 
it seemed for a time as if all organized gov- 
ernment had ceased from the earth. The 
Wild Beast seemed to be at last extinct, 
with the destruction of this mighty head. 
But gradually another power arose in its 
place. It was the sovereignty of the Popes. 
The disturbed condition of Italy demanded 
that some one come to the front to re- 
store order and government, and it was 
then that the Pope established his tem- 
poral authority, annexed three of the 
states of Italy to his kingdom by right of 
which he wears a triple crown to this day, 
and brought back the ruined capital of the 
Caesars to a glory and an eminence even 



The Two Beasts. 



121 



greater than during the most prosperous 
age of the Empire itself. Down through 
the Middle Ages, for more than a thousand 
years, Rome continued to be the capital of 
the world, and from its proud throne it dic- 
tated not only the policies of the States of 
the church but of all other earthly king- 
doms. Nothing is more vivid than the de- 
scription which an infidel historian has 
given of the strange resussitation of this 
fallen head. 

The following extract from a Roman 
Catholic secular historian will illustrate 
this. 

"The rise of the temporal power of the 
Popes presents to the mind one of the most 
extraordinary phenomena which the annals 
if the human race offer to our wonder and 
admiration. By a singular combination of 
concurring circumstances a new power and 
a new dominion grew up silently and stead- 
ily on the ruins of that Eoman Empire 
which had extended its sway over, or made 
itself respected by nearly all nations, peo- 
ples, and races that lived in the period of 



Heaven Opened. 



its strength and glory, and that new power 
of lowly origin struck a deeper root and 
exercised a wider authority than the em- 
pire whose gigantic ruins it saw shattered 
into fragments and mouldering in the dust. 
In Rome itself the power of the successor 
of Peter grew side by side with, and under 
the protecting shadow of that of the em- 
peror and such was the increasing influence 
of the popes that the majesty of the supreme 
Pontiff was likely ere long to condemn the 
splendor of the purple. 

The removal by Constantine of the seat 
of the empire from the West to the East, 
from the mystic banks of the Tiber to the 
beautiful shores of the Bosphorus, laid the 
broad foundation for a sovereignty which 
in realty commences from that momentous 
age. Practically almost from that day 
Eome was gradually abandoned by the in- 
heritors of her renown and its people de- 
serted by emperors and an easy prey to the 
ravages of the barbarians whom they had 
no longer the courage to resist beheld in the 
Bishop of Rome their guardian, their pro- 



The Two Beasts. 



tector, their father. Year by year the tem- 
poral power of the popes grew into shape and 
hardened into strength without violence, 
without bloodshed, without effort by the 
force of overwhelming circumstances fash- 
ioned as if visibly by the hand of God." 

This could scarcely have been more ex- 
act if the author had been writing with the 
thirteenth chapter of Revelation open before 
him. 

THIS WAS TO BE A WORLDWIDE POWER. 

The dominion of the Papacy was world- 
wide. The official seal of the Papal govern- 
ment is a woman holding in her hand a cup 
with the inscription on the seal, "She sits 
supreme above the world." It only needs 
a very little knowledge of mediaeval history 
to understand that the Popes of Rome not 
only conferred the crowns upon the 
heads of the kings of France, Germany and 
sometimes England but took them away 
when they pleased and compelled the wear- 
ers to hold them always subject to Rome's 
dictation. 



124 Heaven Opened. 



IT WAS A BLASPHEMOUS POWER. 

, "On its heads were the names of blas- 
phemy, and there was given unto it a mouth 
speaking great things and blasphemies." 
The blasphemies were of the nature of great 
assumptions. A simple list of some of the 
titles claimed by the Pope is a sufficient in- 
terpretation of this prophecy. One of his 
usual titles is "Our Lord God, the Pope" and 
the following quotations from Eomish au- 
thorities themselves will more than verify 
the application of this prophecy to this sys- 
tem of presumptious pride. 

The blasphemous character of the Pap- 
acy is evident from the following titles as- 
sribed to the Pope by a leading Roman 
Catholic writer, Monsignor Capel: Prince of 
Bishops, Vicar of Christ, Sovereign Pontiff, 
Apostolic Lord and Father of Fathers, In- 
fallible Pope, Most Divine of all Heads, 
Moses in Authority, High Priest, Supreme 
Bishop, Head of all the Holy Churches, 
Ruler of the House of the Lord. 

Another Roman Catholic writer ascribes 
to him the following powers: 



The Two Beasts. 



125 



"The Pope is of such dignity and high- 
ness that he is not simply a man but, as it 
were, God, and the representative of God, 
Hence the Pope is crowned with a triple 
crown as the king of heaven, of earth and of 
hell. He is above angels and is their super- 
ior, so that if it were possible that angels 
could err from the faith or entertain senti- 
ments, contrary to authority, they could be 
judged and excommunicated by the Pope. 

He is of such dignity and power that he 
occupies one and the same tribunal with 
Christ, so that whatsoever the Pope does 
seems to proceed from the mouth of God. 
The Pope is, as it were, God on earth, to 
whom the government of the earth and heav- 
enly kingdom is entrusted." 

The following is from various Papal 
bulls. The bull of Sixtus V. says, 

"The authority given to St. Peter and 
his successors excels all the power of earth- 
ly kings and princes and if it find any of 
them resisting God's ordinance it takes 
more severe vengeance on them casting 
them down from their thrones, however 



126 



Heaven Opened. 



powerful they may be, and tumbling them 
down to the lowest abyss of the earth as 
the ministers of Lucifer." 

Pope Innocent III. says, "The Pope holds 
the place of the true God." 

Pope Nicholas I. says, "The Emperor 
Constantine conferred the name of God on 
the Pope, who, therefore, being God, cannot 
be judged by man." 

The canon law of the church of Rome 
designates the Pope "Our Lord God, the 
Pope." 

Another of the Popes quoted by Fox in 
his acts and monuments declares "I am all 
in all, and above all so that God Himself 
and I His vicar have both one consistory 
and I am able to do almost all that God can 
do. In all things that I list, my will is to 
stand for reason for I am able by law to dis- 
pense above the law and of wrong to make 
justice in correcting laws and changing 
them. Wherefore, if those things I do be 
said not to be done of man but of God, what 
can ye make of me but God. Again, if the 
prelates of the church be called and counted 



The Two Beasts. 



127 



of Constantine for God's, I, then, being 
above all prelates, seem by this reason to 
be above all gods. Wherefore no marvel 
if it be in my power to change times and 
times, to alter and abrogate laws to dispense 
with all things, yea, with the precepts of 
Christ." 

Cardinal Manning endorses the following 
declaration: "We declare absolution and 
penance to be necessary to salvation for ev- 
ery human creature to be subject to the Ro- 
man pontiff." 

The following references to the indul- 
gences sold by Tetzell will show the blas- 
phemous character of this extraordinary in- 
stitution. Tetzell was one of the vilest of 
men and yet he was selected to carry these 
indulgences to all that would buy of them. 
He declared that the red cross which accom- 
panied him had as great efficacy as the cross 
of Christ, that there was no sin so great that 
he could not remove it. Indulgences saved 
not the living alone but they also saved the 
dead. The very moment the money chinks 
against the bottom of the chest the soul es- 



12S 



Heaven Opened. 



capes from purgatory and flies free to heav- 
en. 

Among the abominations of the system 
was a regular scale of prices: polygamy 
cost six ducats; sacrilege and perjury nine; 
murder eight. 

The final climax was the mad and fatal 
folly w T hich thirty years ago dared to claim 
infallibility and lifted itself so high that it 
fell from its citadel of supremacy to rise no 
more, at least to political pre-eminence. 

Many of us can remember a time during 
our own lives when the Pope was a king in 
the Vatican and took part in the conferences 
of European sovereigns and always claimed 
and received the right to occupy the 
chief place of honor and respect in dip- 
lomatic banquets and conferences. But 
the world has just witnessed the ex- 
traordinary spectacle of the refusal of the 
great powers of Europe to even allow 
him to be represented at the Peace Confer- 
ence to be held at the Hague during the 
present year. 

It is not necessary to suppose that bias- 



The Two Beasts. 



129 



phemy is always marked by open hostility 
to God. It is just as great a blasphemy to 
usurp the place of God or call ourselves His 
representatives, and we know that the vital 
principle of the Papacy is that the Holy 
Father is the Vicar of Christ and the su- 
preme authority on earth for law, right and 
human conscience. Several of the Popes 
have even officially declared that no man 
can convict the Pope of wrong even if it be 
open immorality. It ceases to be wrong if 
he chooses to call it right. 

IT WAS TO BE A PERSECUTING POWER, TO MAKE 
WAR WITH THE SAINTS AND AEFLICT THEM. 

Was there ever any earthly power that 
so fulfilled this terrible picture? Imperial 
Eome was cruel, but it was reserved for 
Papal Rome to outdo all her cruelties by 
her fiendish outrages. The number of her 
martyrs has been estimated as high as 50,- 
000,000, and sometimes even more. 

The massacre of St. Bartholomew wiped 
out the Protestants of France in a single 
night to the number of at least 50,000, and 



130 



Heaven Opened. 



when the news reached Rome, a solemn Te 
Deum was celebrated and a medal was is- 
sued by the Pope in commemoration of this 
joyful event. 

Spain sent the Duke of Alva to the Neth- 
erlands to stamp out the Protestant heresy, 
and during all the years of that terrible war, 
women and little children were murdered, 
outraged and exterminated, whole cities at 
a time often, with a fiendish barbarity un- 
equalled in the annals of pagan war. 

The story of the Spanish Inquisition is 
the most hideous chapter of the Middle 
Ages. Men were set apart for the one pur- 
pose of inventing the most ingenious tor- 
tures for the human body and mind, and 
while martyrs were literally being clawed to 
pieces with red hot flesh hooks, or torn limb 
from limb on wheels, a lot of robed priests 
were standing by denouncing upon them the 
curses of heaven and telling them that they 
were going down to hell and everlasting tor- 
ment. Papal decrees regularly announced 
the names of the men that had exterminated 
the greatest number of heretics and they 



The Two Beasts. 



131 



were held up for emulation to the Catholic 
world. Today, Spain is drinking in her turn 
the dregs of that cup which so long she held 
to the lips of the saints of God. 

THIS DESTRUCTIVE, BLASPHEMOUS AND DEVIL- 
ISH POWER WAS TO TRIUMPH EOR 
1260 YEARS. 

Here we come to the great subject of 
prophetic chronology upon which we have 
not time to enter fully in this brief space. 
It will suffice to say that the rise of the Pap- 
acy was gradual and its fall will also be 
gradual. In measuring its duration we 
must reckon therefore from different dates 
which mark the standing points of the sys- 
tem and we must carry the measuring line 
forward to the corresponding dates which 
mark the epochs of its downfall. There 
" were several marked periods in connection 
with the rise of the Papacy. Measuring 
from one of the most important of these, the 
decree of Phocas establishing the suprem- 
acy of the Pope 1260 years bring us to the 
year 1870 when the death blow was finally 



132 



Heaven Opened. 



struck at the temporal power of the Papacy. 
Through a most marvelous series of prov- 
idences the Pope was led first to claim his 
infallibility before the world and then be- 
fore the echoes of that blasphemous an- 
nouncement had ceased it was answered by 
war between France and Germany which 
crushed the power of France and rendered 
it impossible for her to further sustain the 
Papacy, whereupon Victor Emanuel and 
Garibaldi raised the standard of Italian lib- 
erty and in a few days the throne of the 
Pope had fallen and Rome became the capi- 
tal of united Italy. Thus precisely within 
the prophetic limit one phrase of this sys- 
tem of blasphemy, persecution and oppres- 
sion finished its career and met its judg- 
ment. 

THE SPIRITUAL BEAST. 

We now come to another image of evil 
power, to the second Beast. This Beast un- 
like the other rises out of the earth and not 
out of the sea. It comes from the midst of 
the organized political powers of the earth. 
Its principal is at first entirely different 



The Two Beasts. 



133 



from the other. It is not a wild beast but 
looks like a gentle lamb and it is only when 
it speaks that its voice is like a dragon. It 
bears a very intimate relation to the beast 
that has just preceded and is really an ally 
to its power. It is a wonder-working power 
claiming to work great miracles and to 
make fire come down out of heaven. It is 
especially a deceiving power. It is also a 
despotic power claiming the right to con- 
trol men's consciences and to compel them 
to worship its head and obey its authority 
under the penalty of the severest civil and 
social disabilities and punishments, boy- 
cotting even the ordinary avenues of trade 
when men refuse to be dominated by its des- 
potic will. 

Finally its very name is hinted at by the 
symbolical number 666. Let us look in de- 
tail at these particulars. First, however, 
let us premise again that this second beast 
represents not a political but an ecclesias- 
tical power in very close alliance with the 
political power already described. What 
can so well fulfill all these specifications as 



134 



Heaven] Opened. 



the system of Papacy, not now as a state 
and sovereignty, but as a great false church. 
Let us now notice some particulars of this 
picture. 

1. It arises out of the earth from the 
organized political states of the world. 

2. It has the appearance of a lamb, is 
most plausable and insidious in its bearing 
and claims. 

3. But it speaks as a dragon. Its voice 
is harsh, cruel, proud and blasphemous. It 
issues its Bulls and Interdicts, its male- 
dictions and curses and has shown a fiend- 
ish cruelty in its dealings with mankind. 

4. It is allied to the first Beast, the Pa- 
pal sovereignty, helping it and helped by it. 
It used through the Middle Ages its author- 
ity over the consciences of men to hold them 
in subjection to the basest bondage. 

5. It claims the power of working mir- 
acles, and its largest stock in trade is relics, 
images, bones, and records of false miracles 
through the power of the prayers of count- 
less saints. 

6. It is a deceiving power. Its miracles 



The Two Beasts. 



135 



are false. Its claims are contradicted by 
the facts. It is built upon duplicity, hypo- 
crisy and Jesuitism and it is essentially a 
system of deepest subtlety and Satanic 
guile. 

7. It had power to give life to the image 
of the Beast; that is to say it revived and 
restored the old Eoman power that had 
been dying out, and aimed in the eighth cen- 
tury to re-establish the whole Eoman Em- 
pire under Charlemagne, and literally ful- 
filled the prophecy of the fifteenth verse. 

8. It compelled the obedience of men to 
its authority even in civil and social as well 
as spiritual matters. We know what a Pa- 
pal interdict means. It was a decree issued 
by the Popes in peculiar exigencies when 
some king or subject became wilful and dis- 
obedient and an interdict was issued against 
him, the effect of which was to prevent his 
subjects from obeying him, his soldiers from 
fighting for him, his wife from living with 
him and all trades and classes from supply- 
ing his needs or giving him in any way help 
of any kind, so that he was practically cut 



136 



Heaven Opened. 



off from the world and left to the mercy of 
the Pope. 

9. Finally a hint is given of the name of 
this system of evil by the number 686. Many 
interpretations have been given out but the 
most satisfactory is that which is as old as 
the days of Irenaeus, a father of the second 
century who first suggested that word Lat- 
einos which means Latin and numbers ex- 
actly 666, each letter in the name having a 
certain numerical value. This is indeed 
very wonderful when we remember that 
Irenaeus lived centuries before the Papacy 
arose, and yet he foresaw that this system 
of iniquity would in some way become con- 
nected with the Latin language and the La- 
tin race. The Papacy is Latin through and 
through, using the Latin language and hav- 
ing its constituency among the Latin races. 
Whatever else this number may mean it 
certainly is strangely appropriate in connec- 
tion with this name. 

Doubtless there will be important chang- 
es in the varied developments of the Pap- 
acy and probably before the end there will 



The Two Beasts. 



137 



be some personal embodiment of the Anti- 
christ, crystallizing in some extraordinary 
manner that which has been already ful- 
filled in the system he shall represent. But 
while expecting this let us not commit the 
fatal error of blinding our eyes to the tre- 
mendous facts of the present and the past. 
As Dr. Bonar has said with such force and 
wisdom: "It is one of the wiles of the devil 
so to pre-occupy our minds with the thought 
of the coming Anti-christ that we shall fail 
to recognize who is already here." 

At the same time let us not forget that 
the spirit of the Papacy may extend far be- 
yond the Papal organization. There seems 
to be a marked movement in all the Protes- 
tant churches today to gradually return to 
the things from which the Beformation de- 
livered the church. The spirit of formalism 
and worldliness leads naturally to ritualism, 
and ritualism finds its only complete satis- 
faction in Bomanism itself. When God's 
judgment strikes mystical Babylon it will 
strike all who in any way have shared her 
spirit, and let us not think that the name of 



138 



Heaven Opened. 



Protestantism will save us from the discrim- 
inating and certain judgment of God. 

We shall come back to this subject again 
in the seventeenth and eighteenth chapters 
where the same organized and double sys- 
tem of political and ecclesiastical power will 
meet us under different imagery and in its 
later developments. But through all the 
changing figures we shall still find the same 
mystery of iniquity, and back of it the same 
subtle Adversary who has been its supporter 
and its heaii, and is at least to become him- 
self its consummate embodiment and final 
Head. 



THE FIRSTFRUITS AND THE HARVEST. 



"These are they which follow the Lamb whither- 
soever He goeth. These are redeemed from 
among men, being the first fruits unto God and to 
the Lamb" (Rev. xiv. 15). 

HAVING given us the two contrasted 
pictures of the Mother Church and 
the wild beast, her great adversary 
and oppressor, the revelator now gives us in 
the fourteenth chapter of the Apocalypse 
a series of special visions or pictures of in- 
cidents connected with the last days. They 
are not perhaps consecutive pictures follow- 
ing in precise chronological order, but they 
are representative scenes taken from the 
closing events of the Christian age and lead- 
ing up to the very end, at once to comfort 
the suffering people of God and to warn the 
careless and ungodly of coming judgment. 

THE FIRSTFRTJITS. 

This is a picture of the company of re- 
deemed and purified ones who are described 



140 Heaven Opened. 



as the firstfruits from among men, and evi- 
dently the first to be caught up to meet the 
Lord at His coming. 

Later we have a picture in the fifteenth 
and sixteenth verses of the full harvest of 
the earth, which was reaped by the Son of 
Man. But these seem to represent an ear- 
lier company caught up to meet Him before 
the tribulation time had fully developed 
and at the beginning of the Parousia. Just 
what the difference between these two com- 
panies shall be, and how long the interval 
between the firstfruits and the harvest we 
are not told; but that there shall be a com- 
pany of prepared ones who when He cometh 
shall open to Him immediately and who 
shall be characterized by a peculiar and 
somewhat nearer fellowship with the Lamb 
seems to be very clearly intimated here. It 
is not an arbitrary distinction but the re- 
ward of personal character and holiness. 
Like the places on the right hand of Christ 
it is given to them "for whom it is pre- 
pared," that is, to them who dare to take 
from God the preparation which it involves 



The Firstfruits and the Harvest 141 

and the separation for which it calls. Let 
us look more minutely at this wondrous 
company : 

THEIR NUMBER. 

They were one hundred and forty-four 
thousand. This is a covenant number. It 
is composed of the number twelve multi- 
plied into itself and then into one thousand. 
Twelve being made up of three and four is 
the number of God's covenant people and 
this multiple of twelve denotes a company 
who stand in peculiar and gracious relations 
to God. They are an elect people. They 
do not represent a mass but a called-out 
company, who are all known individually, 
and all numbered. We read of another 
company of one hundred and forty-four 
thousand in the seventh chapter of Revela- 
tion, the called-out and sealed ones among 
the Jews. These, as we shall see later, are 
not Jews but they are corresponding people 
of God representing the Bride of Christ, the 
Gentile Church; or perhaps more correctly, 
the Church of Christ of no particular race 
or family, but of every race and tongue. 



142 Heaven Opened. 



God has a people that He is preparing for 
the coming glory, and of them it is said: 
"The Lord knoweth them that are His." 

THEIK PLACE. 

They stand on Mount Zion with the 
Lamb. Now we are taught by the New Tes- 
tament Scriptures the spiritual significance 
of Mount Zion. "Ye are come (Heb. xii. 
22) unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of 
the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and 
to an innumerable company of angels, to 
the general assembly and church of the first- 
born, which are written in heaven, and to 
God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of 
just men made perfect, and to Jesus the 
Mediator of the new covenant, and to the 
blood of sprinkling that speaketh better 
things than that of Abel." 

Here Mount Zion is evidently the spirit- 
ual centre of God's redeemed people. It is 
not a Jewish Zion ; for Zion here is the heav- 
enly Jerusalen contrasted with Mount 
Sinai. This company therefore represents 
the elect ones of the church of the living 



The Firstfruits and the Harvest. 143 

God, and we may all aspire to a place in 
their holy ranks and a part in their glorious 
hope. 

THIS COMPANY ARE IN VERY CLOSE TOUCH 
WITH HEAVEN". 

They understand the song that is sung 
before the throne above. They have learned 
the language of the skies. They are in har- 
mony with the celestial home and none but 
they can understand the language or the 
music of the world above. They are heaven- 
ly people, and they are waiting for their 
translation to join that heavenly throng. 
They are not yet translated, but they are 
the called-out ones who shall have a part 
in the resurrection from among the dead, 
and while waiting here they are walking 
with the Lord, and following the Lamb 
whithersoever He goeth. 

THESE ARE SEPARATED OXES. 

They were "redeemed from the earth," 
and later it is said "they were redeemed 
from among men." They were not of the 
world but had been taken out of it in spirit 



144 



Heaven Opened. 



and in character. God wants a separated 
people, intrinsically so different from the 
world that the world will drop them as 
readily as they drop the world. 

THEY WERE PURE AND TINDEFILED. 

The word "virgins" is used in the mascu- 
line here to denote a life severed and separ- 
ated from all illicit and unholy things. It 
does not mean that they are necessarily 
living a strained, ascetic life. The Bible 
nowhere casts a slur on lawful marriage as 
a less holy state than celibacy; but the 
meaning is that they are living rightly, and 
free from every stain of impurity. It is in 
this direction that Satan's most insidious 
and corrupting power has been swayed over 
human souls, and blessed indeed are they 
that have been kept undefiled. To them is 
possible a vision of God and a fellowship 
with Jesus which belong only to the Bride 
of the Lamb. 

i 

THEY ARE OBEDIENT ONES. 

"They follow the Lamb whithersoever 
He goeth." It is not that they follow Him, 



The Firstfruits and the Harvest. 145 



but they always follow Him, and they fol- 
low him everywhere. It is uncompromising 
obedience. It is unqualified submission to 
His will. It is the acceptance of the test 
which He Himself has laid down: "Ye are 
My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command 
you." 

THESE AEE TKTJE ONES. 

"In their mouth was found no guile; for 
they are without fault before the throne of 
God." They are honest, sincere, truthful; 
free from hypocrisy, deceit and falsehood 
of every kind. Can such a life be lived be- 
low? Only by those in whom Christ lives; 
for this was the life of the Son of Man Him- 
self "who did no sin, neither was guile 
found in His mouth;" "Who was holy, 
harmless, undefiled and separate from sin- 
ners;" and "He that saith he abideth in 
Him ought himself so to walk even as He 
walked." 

If we fully learn our inability to live 
this life and surrender ourselves in helpless- 
ness to Him, and receive Him, and con- 
stantly depend on Him to relive His life in 



146 Heaven Opened. 



us, we, too, shall find that "He that abideth 
in Him sinneth not," and that "He is able to 
keep us from stumbling, and to present us 
faultless before the presence of His glory 
with exceeding joy." 

A WORLDWIDE EVANGEL. 

The next picture is an Angel flying in the 
midst of heaven "having the everlasting 
Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on 
the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, 
and tongue and people, saying with a loud 
voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for 
the hour of His judgment is come; and wor- 
ship Him that made heaven, and earth, and 
the sea, and the fountains of waters." 

It is very significant that the Holy Spirit 
has here grouped together two movements 
which are the peculiar spiritual features of 
our days. One is the movement for Scrip- 
tural holiness and the other the great mis- 
sionary movement to give the Gospel as a 
witness immediately to all nations. It is 
such a movement which this remarkable 
passage describes. 



The Firstfrirife and the Harvest. 147 

1. The angel flying in the midst of 
heaven is but a symbol of a swift and earn- 
est message speeding over every land and 
hasting to the coming of the Lord. The 
peculiarity of the present missionary move- 
ment is its rapidity and intensity. It has 
all been confined within about one hundred 
years, and from present appearances it 
looks as if within another generation it 
might reach its culmination and give the 
Gospel to every tribe. 

2. That it is a Gospel movement there 
can be no doubt. The attempt of some in- 
terpreters to apply the term "the everlast- 
ing Gospel" to some special message con- 
fined to the last days, and delivered by some 
literal angel is very strained and contrary 
to the analogy of Scripture. The word 
"angel" is the Apocalyptical term for the 
minister of the Gospel, and the everlasting 
Gospel can be nothing but the old Gospel of 
which God has said that "the Word of the 
Lord abideth forever." There is but one 
Gospel and it is everlasting, and the apostle 
has said that even if "an angel from heaven 



148 Heaven Opened. 



should preach any other gospel, let him be 
accursed." 

3. This is a message for all nations. 
"Every nation, kindred, tongue and people" 
is specified. It is the universal proclama- 
tion of the message of salvation to all men. 
That is the peculiar feature of the mission- 
ary movement today, that it is confined 
within no sectional lines but aims at the 
universal evangelization of the world. 

4. It is a message that emphasizes the 
coming of the Lord and the hour of His 
judgment upon sinful nations and ungodly 
men. Its message is "the hour of His judg- 
ment has come." Is not this also a marked 
feature of the missionary movement of this 
age? Is there not an increasing and most 
encouraging tendency toward the pre-mil- 
lennial standpoint in the missionary work 
of our time, and ought not this to be em- 
phasized especially in this crisis of the age? 
Is there not something in it especially fitted 
to arouse and awaken the slumbering na- 
tions? 

When Jonah stood in the streets of Nine- 



The Firstfruits and the Harvest. 149 

yah and proclaimed: "Yet forty days and 
Nineveh shall be overthrown/' there was 
something about this message so startling 
and so authoritative that it forced convic- 
tion and awakened the consciences of men. 
And when the heralds of Christ go forth to 
heathen lands to declare that the Lord of 
earth and heaven is about to come, the King 
of kings is soon to summon to judgment the 
sovereigns of the earth, One greater than 
these chiefs and potentates is on His way 
to set up His throne; there is something 
in the message that is fitted to arouse the 
hearts of men, and God will seal it with 
His quickening powder and make it a word 
of conviction, as solemn as in the days of 
old. 

The time we are persuaded is drawing 
near when the Holy Ghost will lay this bur- 
den so heavily upon the missionaries of the 
cross that the Gospel will go forth to the 
world with a final and authoritative mes- 
sage like this Apocalyptic word, "Fear God, 
for the hour of His judgment has come. 
Fear God and keep His commandments." 



150 Heaven Opened. 



THE VISION" OF THE FALL OF BABYLON. 

The next picture is a vision of the fall of 
Babylon: "And there followed another an- 
gel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that 
great city, because she made all nations drink 
of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. 7 ' 
This does not mean that the power repre- 
sented by Babylon is already fallen, but it 
is the intimation of its impending fall in 
connection with the great series of events 
of which the chapter is a representation. 
The universal spread of the Gospel and the 
preparation of the Bride of the Lamb are 
intimately associated with God's final judg- 
ments upon the great Apostacy; and when 
the people of Christ are ready, then His 
providence will not linger behind, but the 
great panorama of history will move rapidly 
abreast of the Holy Spirit in the hearts and 
through the ministry of the Church of God. 

THE WARNING. 

The next picture brings us an awful 
warning (vs. 9-12) against all those who 
yield to the power of the Apostacy and re- 



The Firstfruits and the Harvest. 151 

ceive the mark of this system of iniquity in 
their foreheads or hands. It is apparent 
that a great conflict is impending. The 
powers of evil are to break forth in perse- 
cuting hate against the people of God, and 
the martyr spirit is again to be revived and 
proved, and God encourages His people by 
this solemn warning to stand true against 
the terrors of Satan, and the system of ini- 
quity in which he has embodied his final 
assault against the kingdom of God. 

A VISION OF THE BLESSED DEAD. 

Next comes a vision of the blessed dead 
(v. 13). This seems specially to apply to the 
period of persecution just described. Many 
a faithful witness will seal his testimony 
with his blood, but "Blessed are the dead 
that die in the Lord from henceforth: yea, 
saith the Spirit, that they rest from their 
labors; and their works do follow them." 
While this is doubtless true of all the bles- 
sed dead in every age it will be especially 
true of the faithful ones of that tribulation 
time. Taken from the evil to come they 



152 



Heaven Opened. 



shall enter into rest, and their works shall 
follow them to claim the great reward which 
is now so soon to be bestowed. 

THE VISION" OF THE HAEYEST OF THE EAKTH. 

Now comes the vision of the harvest of 
the earth (vs. 14-16). This apparently 
reaches on to the close of the tribulation 
time and completes the number of God's 
elect. It differs from the picture of the 
firstfruits, as the feast of Tabernacles of 
old did from the Feasts of Pentecost. That 
was the beginning of the harvest. This is 
its fulness. "A white cloud, and an Angel, 
like unto the Son of man seated upon it" re- 
call all the old imagery associated with the 
picture of Christ's second coming. He 
wears upon His brow a golden crown which 
is the symbol of His reign so soon to begin ; 
and He holds in His hand a sharp sickle 
with which He is to gather the harvest of 
the earth. 

This harvest represents the full number 
of His people from every age and every 
land. At the beginning of the tribulation 



The Firstfruits and the Harvest. 153 

it would appear that a certain number had 
been caught up to meet Him in the air as 
the firstfruits; but during these dark and 
troubled days there were many that have 
died in the Lord, and there are many living 
saints who have been true to their testimony 
and their Lord ; and it may be that there are 
myriads more w T ho were not caught up in 
the first rapture because they were not 
ready — foolish virgins, perhaps, with oil in 
their lamps, but not in their vessels; and 
now, the whole body of His people is gath- 
ered to Him and all the grain is husbanded 
into His garner. It is the finishing of the 
number of His elect. It is the culmination 
of the work of redemption through all the 
age. It is the great Harvest Home of time. 

Ask us not to tell all the minute particu- 
lars and details. It looms before us like a 
mighty vision, vague and indistinct in its 
finer features, but clear and plain in its 
great bold outlines. There is to be the reap- 
ing; there is to be the harvest. There are 
some firstfruits, and there is the fulness of 
the Gentiles and the completing of the 



154 Heaven Opened. 



Bride, the great multitude that no man can 
number out of every kindred, and tribe, and 
tongue, yet to stand before the throne and 
celebrate the consummation of the great re- 
demption. 

THE VINTAGE OF THE EAKTH. 

But there is one picture more. It is the 
vintage of the earth (vs. 17-20)?. This is a 
very different picture, clothed with lurid 
light and the fearful shadows of wrath and 
judgment. 

The angel who ministers in this scene is 
a very different angel from the Son of Man. 
He is the angel of judgment, cold and stern 
as inexorable Justice itself. He, too, has 
in his hand a sharp sickle, but it is not for 
the harvest but for the clusters of the vine 
of the earth. The grapes are hanging rich 
and purple, and they are ready for the wine- 
press of the wrath of God. 

How terribly this suggestive image rep- 
resents the wickedness of the human heart 
and the human race. The heavy clusters of 
purple grapes speak of the passion, the sen 



The Firstfruits and the Harvest. 155 

suality, the pleasure, the selfishness of a 
godless world. They remind us of the ban- 
quet, the dance, the song, the deep full 
draught of earthly indulgence. Yes, drink 
it with its brimming cup, press out the juice 
of the cluster's of earth's vine, revel in their 
beauty and luxuriance for life's little day 
of frivolous pleasure, but remember the 
winepress of the wrath of God, the treading 
down of sin and its blind, foolish votaries 
and victims in earth's last hours of fearful 
judgment, until the blood reaches to the 
horses' bridles. 

Ah, this is the last picture of the earthly 
panorama! The crimson wine will yet be- 
come crimson blood; the song will end in 
shrieks of agony, and the winecup of pleas- 
ure become the wormwood and the gall of 
the wrath of God. We are sweeping on to 
earth's brightest, and yet to time's darkest, 
saddest hour. Before us opens the vista of 
glory; but beyond lies the most awful cat- 
astrophe of human history. Say to Edom's 
watchmen; say to earth's sons and daugh- 
ters as they ask: "What of the night?" 



156 



Heaven Opened. 



"The morning cometh," yes, the morning 
for us, but "also the night for you." 

Beloved, if one had the power to look 
into the horoscope of life and see you when 
a few years shall have passed and gone in 
the place to which you are tending, which 
of these visions would it be? Would it be 
among the Firstfruits with the Lamb, on 
Mount Zion, and the new song, and the spot- 
less robes? Would it be with the blessed 
dead amid their enduring works and eternal 
rewards? Would it be with the Harvest of 
the earth, when Christ shall gather all His 
own in the great feast of tabernacles in the 
coming age? Would it be with the loving 
heralds hasting over land and sea to give 
the Gospel swiftly to all nations? Or, 
would it be with those who go down to tor- 
ment with the mark of the beast upon their 
brow, and those who are ripening for the 
winepress of the wrath of God? Ask Him 
who knows, to tell you, and to tell you that 
you shall have your part in the happy com- 
pany who shall meet Him at His coming 
with joy and not with grief. 



THE VIALS AND THE PLAGUES. 



"And the seven angels came out of the temple, 
having seven plagues, clothed in pure white linen, 
and having their breasts girded with golden gir- 
dles. And one of the four beasts gave unto the 
seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath 
of God, who liveth forever and ever." 

"Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that 
watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk 
naked, and they see his shame" (Rev. xv. 6, 7; 
xvi. 15). 

THE last of the texts that we have 
quoted above is the key to the first. It 
makes it plain and certain that the 
judgments represented by these seven vials 
immediately precede and lead up to the com- 
ing of Christ as a thief. Exactly what is 
meant by that coming there can be no ques- 
tion. It is not His public appearing in glo- 
ry, the grand Epiphany which is described 
in the 19th chapter of the Apocalypse and 
which has already been hinted at in the vis- 
ion of the Harvest and the Winepress and 



158 



Heaven Opened. 



other visions that have gone before. But it 
is that quiet, solemn unannounced Parousia 
which will be known only to His waiting 
Bride and which will, perhaps, little dis- 
turb the ordinary current of human affairs. 
It is that coming for which His people are 
waiting every day and which at the farthest 
cannot now be very far beyond the life of 
the oldest reader of these lines. 

If this be so then it is very plain that 
the events described, represented by the 
vials, are not far off future occurrences that 
are to belong to the Tribulation time, but 
they are the things which are happening to- 
day and ripening fast toward the crisis of 
the Age. With what intense interest there- 
fore, we look around us in the light of these 
lurid gleams as we follow the white robed 
angels of judgment and behold them pour- 
ing out the vials of wrath even while we 
gaze. 

I. The first angel poured out his vial 
upon the earth and immediately there fell 
a noisome and grievous sore upon the men 
which had the mark of the Beast and upon 



The Vials and the Plagues. 159 



them which worshipped his image. This 
judgment must be looked for among the fol- 
lowers of Papacy and it would seem to 
mark the first of God's signal judgments 
upon a people especially connected with this 
system of iniquity. If one were to ask any 
impartial historian what people have been 
most distinctly connected with the Papal 
power for many centuries, the answer would 
point us immediately to France. This was 
the seat of the restored Roman Empire and 
the foremost supporter of the Vatican. 
France was always called the eldest son 
of the Papacy and until the fall of the 
Pope's temporal power in 1870 the very 
person of the Pope was guarded by French 
soldiers. 

Now one does not need to look far to 
find the noisome and grievous sore that fell 
upon this nation. It is just about one hun- 
dred years since the most awful political 
and social catastrophe of modern history 
fell upon France. The historians who have 
described the awful events of the French 
Revolution and its causes and consequences 



160 



Heaven Opened. 



have been led to describe it, with singular 
appropriateness, as a great political and 
social disease, some vile and horrid distem- 
per that suddenly struck the body politic 
with threatened destruction. The wild and 
fearful scenes of revolution, assassination, 
outrage, blasphemy and the outbreak of 
every human passion and every form of hell- 
ish wickedness were so unique and unpar- 
alled, that although there have been many 
French revolutions through many centuries 
yet there is but one that is known as the 
French Revolution. It has left its mark for- 
ever upon France and Europe, and, more 
than any other event of the past five hun- 
dred years, it was a deadly blow at the Pa- 
pacy itself, for the forces that it set in op- 
eration never ceased until the Pope was 
hurled from his throne and forever de- 
spoiled of his temporal sovereignty. 

II. The second angel poured out his 
vial upon the sea and its waters became as 
blood, and the imagery is that of carnage 
and death. Following in the line of the 
French Eevolution we come immediately, 



The Vials and the Plagues. 161 



in the history of modern Europe, to a series 
of naval wars unequalled in modern history. 
For eight years from 1797 to 1805 the 
waters of earth literally ran with blood and 
it is said that between five and six hundred 
fighting ships in the navies of France and 
her allies were sunk and tens of thousands 
of lives perished. These terrible naval 
disasters all fell upon the people who wor- 
shipped the Beast and were inflicted by the 
hands of a Protestant power through the in- 
fluence of Great Britain. It was during this 
period that the famous battles of Cape Vin- 
cent, Copenhagen, the Kile and Trafalgar 
were fought and won and the maritime as- 
cendency of England established on every 
sea. The appropriateness of the prophetic 
symbol is so obvious that prophecy reads 
like history. 

III. The third angel poured out his vial 
upon the rivers and fountains of waters, 
and they ran with human blood until the an- 
gel of the waters was forced to acknowledge 
the justness of the judgment because these 
very people had shed the blood of saints 



162 



Heaven Opened. 



and martyrs before. This imagery will lead 
our thoughts at once to some region which 
had been peculiarly associated with the per- 
secution of God's saints. There are two 
regions in Europe particularly identified 
with persecution. One is the low country 
of the Netherlands and the other the high- 
lands of the Alps and Northern Italy. One 
feature in the prophetic vision precludes the 
former and directs us to some region which 
might properly be called the rivers and foun- 
tains of waters. The latter country, Pied- 
mont and Northern Italy is the fountain 
head of all the rivers of Europe running 
northward and southward in the great 
streams of the Po, the Ehine, etc. Now it 
happens that this country was for ages the 
home of the Waldenses and the Vaudois, 
the holy and faithful saints of the Middle 
ages, and against these the whole power of 
the Papacy was directed until their blood 
ran on every mountain side and holy mar- 
tyrs and gentle maidens hurled themselves 
from the face of the rocks to save them- 
selves from the cruelty of their foes. It was 



The Vials and the Plagues. 163 



of this that Milton sang with perhaps no 

thought of this prophecy, 

"Avenge, oh Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose 
blood 

Lies scattered on the Alpine mountains cold." 

Now following immediately the French 
Revolution and the maritime wars at the 
beginning of this century came the most 
fearful shock of battle which Europe had 
seen for centuries on these very fields. It 
was here that Xapoleon suddenly leaping 
into fame, impelled by a wild devastating 
ambition, led the armies of the French Re- 
public and fought the famous battles of Lo- 
di, Areola, Mantua and many others that 
have given lustre to his name until he had 
trodden down all resistance and established 
the French dominion over all these lands 
and the people that had drunk the blood of 
saints so long at last were given their own 
blood to drink, and heaven recognized the 
justice of the judgment. All this is very 
clear and needs but to be traced by a candid 
mind in the history of our century. 

IV. Next the angel of judgment pours 



164 



Heaven Opened. 



out his vial upon the sun, men are scorched 
with sudden heat and multitudes perish. 
There is a little uncertainty about the inter- 
pretation of this symbol. It may correctly 
refer to the hotter flame of battle which fol- 
lowed the events already described until the 
whole continent of Europe was ablaze with 
war and men were consumed by the scorch- 
ing rays and perished by hundreds of thou- 
sands. This was true in the first fifteen 
years of this century until at last the very 
fate of the world seemed to hang in the bal- 
ance and the battle of Waterloo in 1815 
really saved Europe from the power of a 
reckless and universal despotism. 

But we believe there is another inter- 
pretation more strictly in accordance with 
the simple figure and also in line with the 
facts of history. The sun is the natural 
symbol of light, and this stroke upon the 
sun would seem to suggest a terrible blow 
at the sources and streams of human know- 
ledge so that some awful cloud came upon 
the mind of man, some perversion of human 
reason and conscience, followed by false 



The Vials and the Plagues. 165 

teachings, wrong principles and monstrous 
crimes. Xow is it not strictly true that 
since the French Revolution at the begin- 
ning of the present century there has been 
such a scorching stroke upon the mind and 
conscience of the world? The spirit of wild 
and reckless license has been let loose and 
new and destructive phases of infidel 
thought, bold atheistic materialism, reck- 
less socialism and godless naturalism with, 
we may add, gross sensualism have pre- 
meated the whole structure of human so- 
ciety and the sad evils are beginning to ap- 
pear on every side. 

Respect and veneration for authority 
have gone. The home has been invaded and 
all the holy bonds that held society together 
are being torn to shreds. Democracy and 
liberty are becoming demagogism and are 
the rule of the lowest classes in the com- 
munity. Socialism is the undermining of 
human society; Xihilism is threatening the 
foundations of government; labor and capi- 
tal are at war, and under every institution 
there is the muttering of a threatened con- 



166 



Heaven Opened. 



vulsion and a terrible earthquake. Faith 
has lost its hold upon the human con- 
science. Righteousness has been drowned 
in compromising. Mammon is enthroned 
above principle and God, and the very 
church is almost as broad as the world; 
while the conscience of man has lost its 
hold and the days have come when men 
shall call good evil and evil good, and the 
solemn warning of Christ is becoming 
true, "If the light that is in thee be 
darkness, how great is that darkness!" 
It is as if the sun of truth and righteousness 
had been eclipsed, or rather had begun to 
burn with a fierce and scorching flame and 
instead of giving its joyful healthful light 
was consuming us by its fiercest beams. 

V. The next angel pours out his vial 
directly upon the seat of the Beast. We 
may now expect some blow upon Eome 
itself and our expectation is not disap- 
pointed. Thrice in a century has that blow 
been struck. The first occasion was in the 
beginning of the century when the armies of 
Napoleon having conquered Italy and Aus- 



The Vials and the Plagues. 



167 



tria at last beseiged Eome assisted by revo- 
lutionary Italian forces, and the Pope was 
taken prisoner and carried over the Alps 
in the dead of winter to France where he 
died neglected and alone, and the Catholic 
world looked with amazement on the spec- 
tacle of him whose person had been consid- 
ered sacred and inviolate, a helpless and dy- 
ing prisoner in the hands of his insulting 
foes. 

It was a blow to the prestige and dig- 
nity of the Papacy which had never been 
thought possible. 

Again in 1848 the spirit of revolution 
broke out and once more the temporal pow- 
er of the Papacy seemed to be departing. 
The culminating stroke, however, came in 
1870, when, after the blasphemous decree 
of Papal Infallibility had been passed, God's 
forbearance was exhausted and He let loose 
the dogs of war before which France was 
crushed in helplessness under the armies 
of Germany and Italy took advantage of the 
fact to claim her freedom while France was 
helpless to protect the Pope. The Italian 



168 



Heaven Opened. 



troops marched into Rome. The Pope be- 
came a prisoner in the Vatican, and the 
great temporal sovereignty that for ages 
had ruled the world passed away forever. 

The spiritual system did not cease. In- 
deed, this power was rather intensified and 
is still spreading and working with all its 
ancient cunning but the Papacy as a king- 
dom has ended and the vial upon the seat 
of the Beast has done its work forever. 

Now, how any one can trace these five 
judgments and read the companion page of 
the history of the present century and not 
be deeply moved by the marvellous corre- 
spondence and fulfillment we cannot under- 
stand. But the progression still advances. 

VI. The sixth angel next pours out his 
vial. But now the scene is changed. The 
judgment upon the Papal beast has done its 
work and a new adversary must now be 
found. There is still another form of or- 
ganized spiritual wickedness which has not 
yet appeared in the book of Revelation ex- 
cept for a moment but which now becomes 
the subject of God's judicial dealing. 



The Vials and the Plagues. 169 

It is here described as the river Eu- 
phrates, and the "drying up of its waters 
that the way of the kings of the East may 
be prepared." The river Euphrates evident- 
ly represents some Oriental form of evil 
power. It is the natural image of the Mos- 
lem and Turkish power, the twin Apostacy 
of the ages. It began when the Papacy be- 
gan and it will pass away at the same time 
and under corresponding judgments. And 
so, abreast of the strange movement of God's 
providence in dealing with Papal lands we 
have witnessed for half a century His judi- 
cial dealings with Mohammedan peoples, 
especially the Turkish empire. 

Not suddenly, but like the drying up 
of an eastern river has its power been pass- 
ing away. The beginning of the century 
was marked by the Greek Eevolution and 
the terrible battle of Navarino by which the 
Turkish fleet was destroyed and the inde- 
pendence of Greece secured. Then came 
the rebellion of Mehemit Ali leading to the 
independence of Egypt, the conquest of 
Syria and the threatened capture even of 



170 



Heaven Opened. 



Constantiuople. Since that time province 
after province has been slipping from the 
grasp of the Turk, Moldavia, Wallachia, 
Bulgaria, Servia, Montenegro, and section 
after section in Asia have passed either into 
independence or into the hands of other 
powers and but a vestige is left the Turk 
of his ancient and mighty dominion. 

As he dissapears another race appears. 
It is here described as the Kings of the 
East or the Kingdom of the East. It is 
not hard to recognize the Jew, an Oriental 
people and a people destined yet to rule the 
world. As the Turk retires the Jew ad- 
vances. Side by side with the decadence 
of the Sultan is the marvellous advance of 
the Hebrew. Today he is the king of fi- 
nance and European journalism. He is a 
potent force in politics. He holds the sin- 
ews of war. And he is at last become a 
united people. The heart of the race has 
revived. The old watchword of Zion has 
received new meaning. Eich and poor from 
every land are uniting in a great movement 
looking to the recovery of Palestine for the 



The Vials and the Plagues. 



171 



Jew, the establishment of a Hebrew state 
and the return of Israel to the heights of 
Zion. It is a marvellous movement and 
the beginning of the end. 

But this vial has a further reach. Its 
force is not spent with mere national and 
political effects. It also touches the deep- 
est social and spiritual realms. Under it 
we see three forms of malignant spiritual 
power going forth among men. They are 
described as three unclean spirits like frogs 
that go forth unto the kings of the earth 
to prepare them for "the great day of the 
battle of God Almighty/' 

The frogs are natural symbols of evil 
spirits of impurity, darkness, gloom and 
evil. They come from three directions. 
One comes directly from the devil. It is 
not hard to recognize this unclean spirit. It 
bears its master's image on its front. It is 
that fearful system of Spiritualism which 
has spread its unhallowed influence through 
every civilized community. It is the devil 
worship of the Beast adjusted to modern 
civilization and culture. Supernatural un- 



172 Heaven Opened. 



doubtedly it is, working miracles not 
merely by pretence but in reality, miracles 
like those of Egypt only inferior to those of 
the Holy Ghost. And it has gone forth into 
the kings of the earth. It seems to have 
had peculiar access to royal palaces and 
kingly personages. It is infusing into 
the minds of men the principles of practical 
athesism and ungodliness which will pre- 
pare men for "the battle of that great day 
of God Almighty." 

The second of these spirits comes from 
the Beast. It seems to represent some poli- 
tical spirit, perhaps democracy, demagog- 
ism, license, the rule of the masses, the rule 
of the saloon, the rule of the nihilist, the 
rule that rules to ruin. This spirit is abroad 
today and already we stand upon the edge 
of a vortex which at any moment may en- 
gulf society. 

The third frog comes from the False 
Prophet. Whether he represents Moham- 
medanism, especially, or all false religions, 
is not clear. In any event this evil spirit 
represents some form of false religion, some 



The Vials and the Plagues. 173 

wild fanaticism, some truth carried to ex- 
tremes, some frenzied, fiery leader claiming 
supernatural power, teaching a false spirit- 
ism, leading men to call evil good and to 
claim the sanction and leading of the Holy 
Ghost for the vilest crimes. We have seen 
these things in our day as the counterfeits 
of piety and sanctity. "They went out from 
among us because they were not of us." 

And we need, in these last times, to 
watch the voices and the fruits of every re- 
ligious teaching that bears upon it the 
stamp of strain or extravagance for "there 
shall arise false Christs and false prophets 
and even if it were possible the very elect 
should be deceived." These things have al- 
ready begun. They are to increase and in- 
tensify as the age ripens and they are the 
most solemn signs of the times in which we 
live. 

VII. But there now comes an interrup- 
tion in the series of vials and judgments. 
The seventh vial is not immediately poured 
out, but, while the sixth is still working out 
its solemn issues, there comes a strange 



174 



Heaven Opened. 



whisper from the air addressed to the saints 
of God, "Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed 
is he that watcheth and keepeth his gar- 
ments lest he walk naked and they see his 
shame." 

This is not meant for the great noisy 
world but it is a sacred whisper intended 
for His own. It comes as a parenthesis be- 
fore the sixth yial has done all its work. 
The great day of God Almighty has not yet 
come. The forces of earth are gathering 
for the battle of the ages, but the battle 
is not on and before it shall be on, right in 
the midst of its preparation, something very 
strange is to come to pass. It is the trans- 
lation of the saints of God. It is the com- 
ing of the Master as a Thief. It is the 
catching away of the waiting ones from the 
coming catastrophe, the lifting up of the 
little flock before the storm. 

Therefore you will notice that this whis- 
per comes right in between the fourteenth 
and the sixteenth verses. In the fourteenth 
verse the battle is preparing and in the six- 
teenth verse it is on but in the fifteenth we 



The Vials and the Plagues. 



175 



are caught away. Is not this what Christ 
has intimated in the 21st chapter of Luke 
"When these things begin to come to pass 
then lift up your heads and look, for your 
redemption draweth nigh." 

There is something unmistakable about 
this picture of His coming. The thief comes 
not to take away the house or all its con- 
tents. He leaves more than he takes. He 
comes to take the treasures only and leave 
the rest. So this coming is for the holy 
waiting ones. The morning after He has 
come the world will still be there, its ware- 
houses, its railroads, its palaces and man- 
sions, its churches and perhaps many of its 
preachers, but the tried ones, the pure ones, 
the waiting ones, they will have gone, gone 
so quietly that they at first will be scarcely 
missed. "One shall be taken and the other 
left." 

Beloved, is it not all so solemn, no near, 
so personal. It is to each one that He 
speaks the gentle warning, "Blessed is he 
that watcheth and keepeth his garments." 
That is all. 



176 



Heaven Opened. 



There is nothing we can do ourselves. 
We cannot weave the bridal raiment. W r e 
cannot glorify ourselves for the ascension. 
We cannot lift ourselves in spite of the law 
of gravitation from earth to heaven, but we 
can be robed and ready and He will do the 
rest. He will know us by our robes. Be- 
beccah did not have to prepare her wedding 
garments. Her husband's servants sent 
them all and she had but to put them on and 
Isaac knew her by her veil and the attire 
he had sent before. And so of her is said, 
"The Bride has made herself ready, and to 
her it was granted that she should be ar- 
rayed in fine linen clean and white. The 
fine linen is the righteousness of saints." 
What are these garments? Bead back and 
listen. "And I looked and behold a Lamb 
stood on Mount Zion and with Him and a 
hundred and forty-four thousand having 
His Father's name on their foreheads; and 
they sang as it were a new song before the 
throne and before the Lamb, and no man 
could learn that song but the hundred and 
forty-four thousand which were redeemed 



The Vials and the Plagues. 177 



from the earth. These are they which were 
not defiled with women for they were vir- 
gins. These are they which follow the 
Lamb whithersoever He goeth. These are 
redeemed from among men, being the first- 
fruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in 
their mouth was found no guile, for they 
are without fault before the throne of God." 
God help us to watch and keep these gar- 
ments unto the coming of the Lord. 

VIII. Then comes at last the final con- 
flict. Armageddon, it is called. The great 
battle of the ages in the old field of Megiddo 
w r here Josiah fell, where the Crusading 
armies fought, and where at last the kings 
of the north and the south are to meet in 
the sanguinary conflict that Ezekiel has de- 
scribed in his sublime vision. Perhaps the 
forces even now are preparing. The mighty 
hosts of the north with their eye on Con- 
stantinople and Palestine, the Jew and his 
country, the prize for which they are con- 
tending. The ships of Tarshish, of Eng- 
land and the powers of the south unite un- 
der the lion's banner that Ezekiel describes. 



178 



Heaven Opened. 



All this we see dimly in the prophetic fore- 
ground, but the event will make it all the 
more plain. Perhaps we shall not see it 
from the earth for we hope that we shall 
be with Him there. 

But now comes the seventh vial which 
is poured out, not upon the earth, but in the 
air. The battle scene has changed from the 
soil of this planet to the clouds of heaven, 
for Christ has already come into the air 
and the powers of darkness are meeting 
Him there and the last vial is the signal that 
the mighty conflict is about to end. Voices 
and thunders proclaim along the heavens 
"It is done" and lo, the judgment of the na- 
tions, the fall of Babylon, the convulsion 
of nature itself and all the attending cir- 
cumstances of the Great Appearing are 
around us. The Lord is come and the judg- 
ments attending His triumphal march are 
on their way. 

The details of these things will come in 
the later visions. Meanwhile let us again 
pause and ask, Are we ready? In which 
of these comings shall we have our first 



The Vials and the Plagues. 



179 



vision of the Lord, the sweet Parousia or 
the awful Epiphany? From which side 
shall we look down upon this rocking earth 
and rending heaven? The earth side or 
the heaven side? Shall it be true of us 

"I see earth's last red bloody sunset, 
I see the dread Avenger's form, 
I hear the Armageddon onset, 
But I shall be above the storm. 

"There comes a moaning and a sighing, 
There comes the death clod's heavy fall, 
The thousand agonies of dying, 
But I shall be beyond them all. 

"My hopes are passing upward, onward, 
And with my hopes my heart is gone 
My eyes are turning skyward, sunward 
Where glory brightens round His throne." 



MYSTICAL BAYLON; THE WOMAN AND 
THE BEAST. 

"I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast, 
full of man's blasphemy, having seven heads and 
ten horns.' ' 

"And the woman was arrayed in purple and in 
scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones 
and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full 
of abominations and filthiness of her fornica- 
tions." 

"And upon her forehead was a name written, 
MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE 
MOTHER OP HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS 
OF THE EARTH" (Rev. xvii. 3-5). 

If WILL help us to understand the varied 
imagery of this wonderful book if we 
pause at this point and fix in our minds 
the fact that we have four figures in the 
Apocalypse which stand as two sets of com- 
panion pictures. The one is the coming 
King and the companion picture is His holy 
Bride. The opposite picture is the earthly 
kingdom with seven heads and ten horns 
and the counterfeit bride, the false church 



The Mystical Babylon. 181 



represented by a vile woman. These four 
figures loom up above every other amid the 
symbolism of the book, the Lord Jesus 
Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 
and the devil's counterfeit of earthly poli- 
tics and dominion. This is one contrast. 
The other is the glorious woman clothed 
with the sun and crowned with the stars, 
His blessed Bride, and her antithesis is the 
harlot who represents the false church. 

As the Lord Jesus Christ is to be united 
with His bride, so Satan's earthly king be- 
comes wedded to the false church and the 
woman appears therefore seated upon the 
Beast. 

Once more the holy Bride is designated 
in the closing vision of the Apocalypse as 
the glorious city which is to be her home, 
and so she is described as "the new Jerusa- 
lem coming down from God out of heaven." 
In keeping with this the false woman is 
also associated with the city which is her 
home, and she is called Babylon, so that 
altogether we have six images, the Lord 
Jesus, His Bride and the new Jerusalem, 



182 



Heaven Opened. 



a Trinity of blessed and glorious realities, 
and in contrast with them we have the 
dragon's kingdom, the false church and the 
mystic Babylon. 

All these images of the evil power are 
focused in the seventeenth chapter of Rev- 
elation where we see appearing again and 
again the Beast, the Harlot and the city of 
Babylon where altogether they establish 
their dominion and meet their doom. 

There are really two powers described, 
the one a political and the other an eccles- 
iastical power. We saw them both in the 
thirteenth chapter of Revelation as two diff- 
erent beasts. Here they are represented by 
a beast and a woman and the two become 
united and are judged and destroyed. Let 
us look at the special features of this re- 
markable picture and learn its prophetic 
and practical lessons. 

1. This system of spiritual evil is repre- 
sented under the figure of a woman. This 
is no new representation. In Zechariah v. 7, 
8., we behold a woman sitting in the midst 
of an ephah and then borne by two other wo- 



The Mystical Babylon. 183 



men with wings like a stork to her own 
abode in the land of Shinar which is just 
Babylon, and the angel interprets it to the 
prophet by saying "this is wickedness." 

This is God's ancient picture of this 
false woman. 

Again, in the thirteenth of Matthew we 

find a woman mixing the leaven in three 

measures of meal. And again in this same 

book of Revelation in connection with the 

church in Thyatira the same evil system is 

represented as "that woman Jezebel." 

How truly it is that said woman can be 

earth's greatest blessing or bitterest curse. 

Her power for evil is as boundless as her 

power for good. 

"She raised a mortal to the skies; 
She brought an angel down." 

2. She is a vile woman, a harlot. It is 
implied that she was once pure but has com- 
mitted spiritual adultery with the world. 
This figure, of course, is to be understood in 
its higher spiritual meaning. In the book 
of Hosea we find as the very basis of the 
prophet's appeal to Israel the figure of the 



184 Heaven Opened. 



false wife, and in the epistle of James those 
who become the friends of the world are 
addressed as adulterers and adulteresses, 
and the apostle adds "Know ye not that the 
friendship of the world is enmity with God? 
Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the 
world is the enemy of God. Do ye think 
that the Scriptures saith in vain the Spirit 
that dwelleth in us loveth us to jealousy." 

3. This woman is represented as sitting 
on many waters. These waters are ex- 
plained in verse xv. as "peoples, multitudes, 
nations and tongues." This represents the 
wide dominion of the false church over 
earth's myriads. The Papacy has been em- 
inently successful in her foreign missions 
because she has adapted herself unscrupu- 
lously to the superstitions, prejudices and 
passions of the various races with whom 
she has mingled and today her spiritual 
sway extends over more than two hundred 
millions of the human family. 

4. She is represented as dwelling in 
the wilderness "So he carried me away in 
the spirit of the wilderness." This expres- 



The Mystical Babylon. 185 



sion is peculiar and seems to describe with 
singular propriety the condition of Eome 
and the surrounding country at the time the 
Papacy arose. It came out of the wreck of 
Koman power and at the time that it first 
appeared in its supreme claims for eccles- 
iastical primacy and temporal sovereignty, 
Gibbon says of Rome she had reached at 
this time "the lowest period of her depres- 
sion by the removal of the seat of empire 
and the successive loss of the provinces, 
the sources of private and public opulence 
were exhausted, the lofty tree under whose 
shade the nations of the earth had reposed 
was deprived of its leaves and its branches, 
and the sapless trunk left to wither in the 
ground. The Campagna of Rome was re- 
duced to the state of a dreary wilderness in 
which the land is barren, the waters are im- 
pure and the air infectious. The depopula- 
tion was constant and rapid and gloomy 
enthusiasts might expect the approaching 
fate of the human race." 

5. The attire of this woman is de- 
scribed. She was "arrayed in purple and 



186 



Heaven Opened. 



scarlet" color and decked with gold and 
precious stones and pearls." It is unnec 
essary to identify these colors with the in- 
signia and adornment of the entire Papal 
ritual and officiary. The prominent colors 
in its great ecclesiastical ceremonies are 
purple and scarlet. The red hood of the 
cardinal is the most honored gift of the 
church. Its altars are decked with gold 
and precious stones so that even silver is 
scarcely seen. In the single church of St. 
Paul's at Rome there is altar after altar 
which has been endowed by kings and 
princes, each of which is of incalculable 
value. 

6. She is represented as holding in her 
hand a "golden cup full of abominations.." 
It is strangely significant that one of the 
official medals of the Papacy struck by Leo 
XII contains on its face this very picture of 
a woman holding in her hand a golden cup 
and with the latin inscription, "sedet super 
universam." 

7. This woman is "drunk with the blood 
of saints and the martyrs of Jesus." She 



The Mystical Babylon. 187 



has been a persecuting power and the rage 
of persecution has become the wild passion 
of intoxication. It is unnecessary for us to 
recall what we have already said in this 
connection in the former chapters to prove 
that with the Papacy the shedding of the 
blood of saints has been a passion and a 
carnival of fiendish delight. 

8. Her name is emblazoned on her fore- 
head, "Mystery, Babylon the Great, the 
Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the 
Earth." Here we have the first local mark 
of identity, apparently at least, but we are 
prepared to attach a purely figurative 
meaning to the local name by the word 
"mystery" which precedes it. We are re- 
minded that the prophet is not speaking 
about literal but mystical Babylon. Baby- 
lon was the head of the whole system of 
earthly powers described by Daniel's vision, 
and these represent in prophetic symbolism 
the whole system of Antichrist. Beginning 
with the tower of Babel, the first centre of 
man's rebellion against God, it represents 
the whole series of developments of Satan's 



188 



Heaven Opened. 



kingdom from the beginning to the end. 
This system is to nominal Christianity what 
ancient Babylon was to the heathen world. 

9. But what is meant by her mother- 
hood and her children, "The mother of har- 
lots and abominations of the earth?" Of 
course, it first suggests the impure and de- 
filing influence of her teaching and example 
upon her own children. We do not need to 
look far to find the degrading effects of Bo- 
manism in all the communities that have 
been steeped in its superstitions. Look at 
those European countries where it has pre- 
dominated and you will find all the hallowed 
restraints of domestic and social life relaxed 
and destroyed, and when you come to such 
lands as the republics of South America 
and the colonies of France and Spain where 
the priesthood has ruled with unrestricted 
influence you find the sanctity of home 
almost unknown, the rising generation 
blighted with the stain of illegitimacy and 
the very ministers of religion detested and 
abhorred because of their unholy lives. 

But more is meant than this. It is 



The Mystical Babylon. 189 



meant that this mother church has eccles- 
iastical children, that there are other 
churches besides the Papacy that are in- 
cluded in the mystical Babylon. While we 
condemn the fearful record of the Papacy 
let us not forget that the name of Protes- 
tant does not shield us from her curse if 
we are sullied with her stain. There is a 
Romanism of Protestantism just as real as 
that of the Papacy, a spirit of outward form, 
of compromise with the world, of ecclesias- 
tical ambition and pride, of gorgeous archi- 
tecture, splendid ritual and dead works 
which will bring the same curse upon the 
daughters as falls upon the mother's head. 

Alas! the saddest thing about this wo- 
man is that once she, too, was pure. She 
seems to be the same woman that the apos- 
tle saw in her youth in the twelfth chapter, 
clothed with the sun and trampling upon 
the darkness of night. But, alas! how 
changed has she become since she learned 
to lean upon the arm of flesh and compro- 
mise with the spirit of the world! And if 
the Apostolic church could sink so low, why 



190 



Heaven Opened. 



may not the church of the Reformation, the 
church of the Puritans, the church of the 
Covenanters also become partaker of the 
guilt and doom of Babylon. Is not this the 
meaning of that solemn passage which we 
hear sounding from heaven in the fourth 
verse of the eighteenth chapter, "Come out 
of her, my people, that ye may not be par- 
takers of her sins, and that ye receive not of 
her plagues." 

We cannot fail to notice especially in 
the eighteeth chapter which describes the 
doom of Babylon, the atmosphere of luxury, 
self-indulgence, commercial enterprise, enor- 
mous wealth, aesthetic culture and the 
pomp and glory of the present world con- 
nected with this whole religious system. It 
seems most aptly to describe the church 
which seeks to ally itself with the world's 
wealth, refinement and pleasure. She had 
lived "deliriously." She said, "I sit a queen, 
and am a widow and shall see no sorrow." 
She was full of the merchants of the earth. 
She was bedecked with gold, silver, precious 
stones and pearls, and clothed in fine linen, 



The Mystical Babylon. 19^ 



purple, silk and scarlet. Her houses were 
filled with ivory, precious wood, marble, 
brass and iron, perfumes, wine, equipage, 
earth's most precious fruit, luxury, beauty, 
and glory, and the highest aesthetic 
culture. The voice of harpers and musi- 
cians, pipers and trumpets are all repre- 
sented there. Surely it describes the 
church in alliance with the world, embrac- 
ing it in her membership, compromising 
with it in her principles, and finding with 
it her pleasures, her aims and her rewards. 
Is not this the church which we see 
taking form on every side of us today? Her 
name is Protestant but her spirit is that of 
the woman sitting on the beast. We see 
her in the third chapter of Revelation as 
Laodicea. We see her here as Baby- 
lon. 

Do not let us be misunderstood as includ- 
ing all parts and members of the visible 
church. It is only in so far as the visible 
church enters into the spirit of Babylon that 
she becomes partaker with her of her char- 
acter and doom. The Papacy is the mother 



192 



Heaven Opened. 



but these are her daughters that share the 
destiny of her who gave them birth. 

10. The city. In the eighteenth verse 
of the seventeenth chapter and in the verses 
which follow in the eighteenth chapter the 
image changes from the woman to the city 
and the vision becomes localized in Babylon 
more than in the woman. "The woman 
which thou sawest is that great city which 
reigneth over the kings of the earth." 

There seems no other city on earth with 
which this can be identified but Rome. 
Twice already has this vision of wealth, in- 
fluence and worldwide dominion been real- 
ized in the city of the seven hills, and there 
seems every reason to suppose that it will 
yet be realized once more in some era of 
greatness and glory before the end which 
yet may await this historic place. True, 
at the present time Rome is not the metrop- 
olis of a worldwide commerce such as the 
eighteenth chapter describes, but it would 
not be difficult to restore its ancient pre- 
eminence in the last days of the tribulation 
times, especially if once again the Papal 



The Mystical Babylon. 193 



system became the embodiment of earth's 
combined systems of political and ecclesias- 
tical power. Certainly, at the time that 
John wrote she was entitled aboye all other 
places on earth to this pre-eminence, and all 
through the Middle Ages she was the centre 
of the world's wealth, culture, influence and 
power. The features which are specified 
in the descriptions which follow leave no 
doubt of the identity of Home. 

11. Among these are the mountains on 
which she is represented as sitting (v. 9). 
"The seven heads are the seven mountains 
on which the woman sitteth." Rome is 
built on seven hills and has long been known 
as the seven hilled city. They are the topo- 
graphical feature of Rome. 

But these mountains are next explained 
not merely as literal hills but as symbols 
of seven kings or kingdoms, and they are 
more fully explained in the tenth verse. 
"There are seven kings, or kingdoms, five 
are fallen and one is, and the other is not 
yet come, and when he cometh he must con- 
tinue a short space, or, for some little 



194 Heaven Opened. 



time. And the beast that was and is not, 
even he is the eighth, and is of the seven 
and goeth into perdition." 

We have already explained in a former 
chapter that the seven heads of this world 
power are the successive empires that have 
dominated the world, namely, Egypt, Assy- 
ria, Babylon, Persia and Greece. These 
w T ere the five that had fallen in the days of 
John. The one that was still in existence 
at that time was Rome. The other that 
was not yet come was the Papacy; and the 
eighth head of the beast who was of the 
seven and was to head it up as an eighth 
head and then -go into perdition was the 
devil himself who had been in all the seven 
as their master mind and invisible head, 
and who, at last, it would seem, is to become 
incarnate as a visible personality and lead 
the last battle against Jehovah and then go 
into perdition. 

12. The attitude of the woman to the 
Beast. She is represented as sitting on him, 
carried by him and supported by his power. 
This represents the union of the false 



The Mystical Babylon. 195 



church with the world power. We see this 
through the whole story of the Papacy and 
after the church became the state religion 
of Kome the unity became more intimate 
until the purity of the church was corrupted 
and finally the earthly and spiritual power 
became identified in their aims, policies and 
means of aggrandizement . The Papacy 
used the armies of the world for the propa- 
gation of her policy and principles, and the 
punishment of heretics, and she in turn 
crowned earth's kings and rewarded them 
with her endorsement. 

Charlemagne the Great, who restored the 
old Roman empire was crowned by the Pope 
as the founder and the king of the whole 
Roman empire. Henry of England was 
called the Defender of the Faith. France 
was named the eldest son of the Papacy. 
Her cathedrals and altars were built and 
adorned by the munificences of princes and 
they were expected in return to obey her 
and submit to her supremacy. Thus she 
committed fornication with the kings of the 
earth and sat on the Beast as her supporter. 



196 



Heaven Opened. 



13. We next note a peculiar feature 
of this vision, the attitude of the ten horns 
of the Beast to this woman. We know who 
these ten horns were, the broken kingdoms 
which followed the wreck of the Koman em- 
pire. They received power as kings for a 
season with the Beast and they give their 
strength unto the Beast and with him make 
war against the Lamb and at last are to be 
arrayed against the Son of God when He 
comes. 

It is remarkable that these horns appear 
without crowns at this stage of the vision. 
It looks as though the monarchial was to 
give place in the last days to the democratic 
form of government for earth's nations. 
They are still to be horns but democratic 
rather than kingly horns. But the peculiar 
feature is that toward the last we find these 
horns in the sixteenth verse turning against 
the harlot and making her desolate and 
naked and eating her flesh and burning it 
with fires. 

Do we find any such strange transforma- 
tion in the attitude of modern nations to- 



The Mystical Babylon. 197 



ward the Papacy? Surely there is nothing 
more remarkable than the exact correspon- 
dence of the events of modern history with 
this part of the vision. Was there ever a 
country more completely under the control 
of the Papacy than France, and yet, was 
there ever a country that turned so violently 
against the Papacy in the French Eevolu- 
tion and the series of events that followed, 
defiling her sanctuaries, besieging the Pope 
in his capital, capturing him, carrying him 
off to die in exile and setting in operation 
the long train of events which culminated 
in the fall of the temporal power of the 
Papacy. 

Scarcely less marked was the next chap- 
ter in this drama, the rising up of Italy, 
long the seat and constituency of the Pap- 
acy, driving the Pope from the throne 
and establishing an independent political 
power under his very eyes. So we have 
lately seen the people of Cuba and South 
America rising against the Spanish power 
which was practically an instrument of the 
Papacy, and we know that their hatred of 



198 



Heaven Opened. 



the monks and priests was far greater than 
of the representatives of the Spanish polit- 
ical power. Thus already have the horns 
begun to ravage and waste the harlot and 
God is fulfilling His precious Word and will 
still fulfill it in the same direction yet more 
wondrously. 

14. The destruction of Babylon is 
the great catastrophe of the eighteenth 
chapter. There seems to be a double process 
of destruction. The cry that echoes through 
the heavens is twofold. "Babylon the 
great is fallen, is fallen." So we see two 
processes of destruction going on in the pro- 
vidence of God. One is political. This has 
already begun through the agency of the 
ten horns, earth's political forces. The oth- 
er is to be the more sudden and terrible de- 
struction of the ecclesiastical system which 
will be by the personal appearing of the 
Lord Jesus and the brightness of His com- 
ing. The vision of Daniel represents the 
gradual process culminating in a sudden 
catastrophe. There the words used are "to 
consume and destroy it unto the end." What 



The Mystical Babylon. 199 



the exact significance of this final catas- 
trophe will be it is premature for us to dis- 
cuss. It is one of the events of the future 
connected with the closing days of the great 
tribulation when so many stupendous and 
awful judgments are to culminate on this 
doomed earth. 

It is surely becoming for us to judge 
with modest deference these mighty future 
possibilities. But out of all these solemn 
signs the lesson is surely plain. It is the 
call for these last days "Come out of her, 
my people, that ye may not be a partaker 
of her sins, and that ye may receive not of 
her plagues." This does not mean come 
out of the churches, but, come out of the 
spirit of compromise, the spirit of luxury, 
the spirit of selfishness, the spirit of a 
worldly church, the spirit of Babylon, the 
spirit of indulgence, extravagance and 
pride, the spirit that seeks its satisfaction 
here and sits a queen instead of a widow 
waiting for her absent Lord. 

Thank God that even while so many even 
in the churches of Protestantism have fallen 



200 



Heaven Opened. 



into the spirit where we fear they shall meet 
the curse of Babylon there is a little flock 
all through the ages and today to be found 
in all branches of the church of Christ walk- 
ing in separation and watching, white robed 
and spirit-filled, for their inheritance when 
the Bridegroom comes and the true King- 
dom shall be ushered in. God grant that 
we may be found in that happy company. 



THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB. 



"Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to 
Him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and 
His wife hath made herself ready. 

"And to her was granted that she should be ar- 
rayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine 
linen is the righteousness of the saints. 

"And He saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they 
which are called unto the marriage supper of the 
Lamb. And he saith unto me, these are the true 
sayings of God" (Rev. xix. 7-9). 

THE events described in the preceding 
chapters have produced a profound 
impression in the heavenly world. 
As from the battlements of the skies the 
glorified beings there looked down upon the 
final destruction of the great system which 
so long defied God and oppressed His peo- 
ple, watching the smoke of her burning, 
there arose from the heavenly host a great 
shout, Alleluia, salvation and glory and 
honor and power unto the Lord our God, for 
true and righteous are His judgments, 
for He hath judged the great harlot which 



202 



Heaven Opened. 



did corrupt the earth with her fornication 
and hath avenged the blood of her servants 
at her hand. And again they said, Allelu- 
ia." 

Next from the four living creatures and 
the four and twenty elders came echoing 
back the same response as they fell upon 
their faces and cried, "Amen, Alleluia.-' 
And when the chorus was taken up by all 
the voices of the heavens until, like the 
sound of many waters and the voices of 
mighty thunderings, it rolled along the 
heavens, "Alleluia, for the Lord God Omni- 
potent reigneth." 

The special reason for this sublime spec- 
tacle of triumph and rejoicing is given in 
the next verse. It was the undertone of the 
great organ of the skies thundering forth 
the notes of the wedding march of the Bride 
of the Lamb and the chorus ends with the 
overture, "Let us be glad and rejoice, and 
give honor unto Him, for the marriage of 
the Lamb has come, and his wife hath made 
herself ready." 

There is a supreme event in every human 



The Marriage of the Lamb. 203 

life to which affection, hope and memory 
look forward or backward. It is the climax 
of life's fondest anticipations and aims. It 
is not always the winning of a fortune or 
the attainment of some place of fame and 
honor, but more often some matter of the 
heart and the home; perhaps the wedding 
day when the fond bride at last reaches the 
accomplishment of her heart's desire or the 
loving bridegroom comes to claim the one 
who is dearer to him than all his fortunes 
or his earthly honors. While this is true 
in this poor world of imperfect and oft dis- 
appointed happiness it is more transcen- 
dently true in that heavenly world where 
hope and love are not 

"Mere transient fires, 
Whose spark flies upward and expires." 

In the story of redemption and the his- 
tory of heaven the supreme event for which 
the ages are waiting is the marriage of the 
Lamb. The Bible is one long love story 
and redemption a divine romance of the 
love of God. The picture of ancient Eden 
opens with a bridegroom and a bride typical 



204 Heaven Opened. 



of that greater union which our text por- 
trays. Born out of His being and then giv- 
en to His arms in wedded love, Eve was 
God's first type of the true church of Jesus 
Christ formed out of His heart and then 
given back to Him in everlasting love. All 
through the story of redemption the figure 
constantly appears. We see it in the mar- 
riage of Isaac to Rebeccah the one bride 
chosen from a foreign people and brought 
home by the faithful servants along that 
typical journey which foreshadowed at ev- 
ery step the waiting church and her meet- 
ing with her Lord in the eventide. The 
marriage of Moses to his Midian bride; the 
story of Ruth and her espousals and the re- 
peated references to this figure in the 
Psalms and Prophets are all in keeping with 
this thought. The forty-fifth Psalm is a 
love song for the Bride of the Lamb and the 
King of glory. The song of Solomon is the 
celebration of the love of the greater King 
to His chosen and beloved church. Isaiah 
sings of Hephzibah and Beulah which just 
mean "married" and "beloved." Jeremiah 



The Marriage of the Lamb. 



205 



pleads for God with his wayward backslid- 
ing bride and cries "Return unto Me for I 
am married unto you." "I remember thee, 
the time of thine espousals and the kindness 
of thy youth when thou wentest after Me in 
a land not sown." Ezekiel pictures the 
foundling girl left naked and friendless on 
the street and taken up by God's loving 
heart, nursed and nurtured, clothed and 
cared for, educated and refined, and at last 
decked in costly raiment and adorned with 
richest jewels and then wedded to him as 
his beloved, "Thou becamest mine" and then 
becoming unfaithful to her divine lover and 
Lord. Hosea continues the picture in still 
more vivid figurative language and brings 
it to a climax in those beautiful words that 
have become the very language of our 
heart's deepest love to Christ, "I will be- 
troth thee unto Me in faithfulness and in 
loving kindness; yea, I will betroth thee 
unto Me forever and thou shalt know the 
Lord: and in that day thou shalt call Me 
no more Baali, my Lord, but thou shalt call 
me Ishi, my Husband." 



206 



Heaven Opened. 



Christ's parables have frequent refer- 
ences to the same figure. He tells us of the 
Marriage of the King's son and of the Ten 
Virgins who went to meet the Bridegroom; 
and John the Baptist describes himself as 
the Friend of the Bridegroom, waiting on 
the Bride, introducing her to her Lord, and 
rejoicing greatly because of the Bride- 
groom's voice. And Paul even in his most 
logical and practical epistles falls into the 
same strain and sees in human love and 
earthly marriage only the imperfect type of 
that grander union, the mystery of grace, 
Christ and His church. "Husbands, love 
your wives even as Christ loved the church 
and gave Himself for it that He might pre- 
sent it unto Himself a glorious church not 
having spot or wrinkle or any such thing 
but that it should be wholly and without 
blemish." 

"This is the heavenly secret, 
The love life of the Lord; 
The golden chain that bindeth 
The story of His Word." 

"Christ is the heavenly Bridegroom; 
To seek His Bride He came; 



The Marriage of the Lamb. 



207 



This is the consummation, 
The Marriage of the Lamb." 

And so we reach at length in the Apoca- 
lyptic vision the supreme event. The ob- 
stacles have been removed; the great false 
church has been destroyed; the counterfeit 
bride has been put down, and now the true 
Bride is to receive her diadem of glory and 
her place by the side of her Lord; and all 
heaven is waiting with suppressed and in- 
tense sympathy, while from the grand or- 
gan of the skies the mighty notes already 
begin to swell the wedding march of glory. 
"Alleluia, the marriage of the Lamb has 
come and His wife hath made herself 
ready." 

There is much about this stupendous 
event which we cannot explain. Just when 
and where it is to occur we may not fully 
know. Some time after the Rapture and 
before the Epiphany and glorious appear- 
ing of Christ to begin His millennial reign 
we know it shall be. Somewhere in 
the air to which He has caught up His be- 
loved ones and from which they have been 



208 



Heaven Opened. 



watching the events of the stormy scene be- 
low shall be the scene, but just what it will 
mean there is no language, there are no fig 
ures, and perhaps there are no sufficient fac- 
ulties and capabilities in our human nature 
fully to understand. But this much is 
plain. 

It will mean some glorious union between 
us and our Eedeemer. It will mean some joy 
surpassing all that we have ever known or 
dreamed of rapture and delight. It will 
mean some tide of love compared with 
which all human love is but as a drop to the 
ocean and a taper to the sunshine. Have 
you ever had even a taste of some exquisite 
joy? Have you ever had a touch of divine 
peace and love? Do you remember what it 
meant to know that you were pardoned 
and saved? Have you ever been comforted 
in some hour of sorrow by your Saviour's 
love? Have you ever got so near Him in 
the hour of prayer that His joy and even 
His glory perhaps but for a moment filled 
and comforted your heart until everything 
was cheap in comparison. Perhaps it has 



The Marriage of the Lamb. 



209 



been interrupted. Perhaps it has alter- 
nated with doubt and fear and many a sor- 
row, but can you remember some gleam of 
heavenly sunshine, some taste of heavenly 
wine? Oh, beloved, that is at least the al- 
phabet with which to spell out the signifi- 
cance of heaven. That is enough to start 
with in measuring the meaning of this trans- 
cendent ecstacy. Just take the sweetest, 
brightest, gladdest moment you have ever 
known of the love of Jesus and multiply it 
by eternity and you can form some concep- 
tion of the exquisite and transcendent rap- 
ture of the Marriage of the Lamb. 

It is to bring us into perfect union with 
God. It is the pouring into the earthly ves- 
sel of all the fulness of His being who is love 
and joy and blessedness in Himself and 
must impart it to every soul into which He 
comes. Union with God is the end and ob- 
ject of salvation. "This is life eternal,*' 
says Christ, "that they might know Thee, 
the only true God and Jesus Christ whom 
Thou hast sent." "That they may be one in 
us, as Thou Father art in Me and I in Thee," 



210 



Heaven Opened. 



This is the supreme prayer in the seven- 
teenth chapter of John. It does not merely 
mean to be one with each other in some 
method of Christian union but it means to 
be one with God as the bridegroom and the 
bride, as the soul and body, as the branches 
and the vine. 

THE BRIDEGROOM. 

We know who He is. It is the Lamb, 
not the Father or the Holy Ghost, although 
each of these is brought into mysterious and 
glorious union with us in the experience of 
redemption. But the marriage of the bride 
is with the Lamb because He is the only 
being that could come into such intimate 
and perfect union with a human bride. He 
is not only the Son of God but He is the 
Son of Man. By His mysterious incarna- 
tion He has become one of our race. He 
has a body, a soul and a nature as perfectly 
human as ours. He has lived among us in 
simplicity and perfect oneness with our 
race. He has left the story of His life and 
it is so natural and complete as to win our 
confidence and attract our sympathy. We 



The Marriage of the Lamb. 



211 



see Him as a babe at Bethlehem, as a boy 
at Nazareth, as the man of Galilee, in the 
home at Bethany, in all the experiences of 
human joy and suffering, in all the little 
touches of a real human life; and it makes 
us feel that He is bone of our bone, flesh of 
our flesh and heart of our heart. 

If some great prince came down into a 
peaceful valley of his empire to woo and win 
a peasant maiden, he could never do it if 
he stood off in his dignity and majesty. Ho 
could only impress her with awe. She 
might respect and admire him but she could 
not come near enough to love Him. There- 
fore, he must woo her by simple tenderness 
and meet her on a common plane. He must 
make her feel that He understands her sim- 
pler life and is so within reach and touch 
of her perfect trust and confidence that she 
can come to Him as freely as to her nearest, 
dearest friend. Therefore Christ stepped 
from the throne of His majesty and came 
to our level that He might woo us and win 
us and thus became to us not a Lord but a 
Lover and a dear intimate Friend. He is 



212 



Heaven Opened. 



the Bridegroom. There is something in His 
heart that wants our love and that is fitted 
to clasp around His heart the tendrils of 
our affection. It is not irreverent to sing, 

"My Jesus I love Thee, I know Thou art mine." 

The very object of His coming to us in hu- 
man flesh is to win this closer confidence 
and this deeper love expressed by the figure 
of the bridegroom and the bride. 

THE BKIDE. 

But who is she? Perhaps this question 
is not quite so clear. We know in a general 
sense she is the church, but how many in the 
church; and how far is the church as a 
whole able to meet and fulfill the place of 
the bride in the intimacy and love of Jesus? 

In the first place in the nature of things 
the relationship of the bride and the condi- 
tions which it requires and expresses are 
essentially exclusive. A man may have 
many friends who are deeply attached to 
him but the affection he expects from a wife 
is different from all other. A woman may 



The Marriage of the Lamb. 



213 



be devotedly attached to many of her rela- 
tives and associates, but to one her heart 
goes out with that tenderness and oneness 
which every true human instinct recognizes 
as peculiar and exclusive. Such love can- 
not be forced by the will of the subject or 
object of it. No man can compel it by 
force or even persuasion unless it springs 
spontaneously in the heart of the loved one. 
No woman can render it at will. It is part 
of its very nature that it must be wooed and 
won by long processes often of kindness, 
affection and fellowship. 

If the language means anything as ap- 
plied to Christ it means that there are those 
who cherish toward Him a love intensely 
personal, peculiar and exclusive and a love 
which must be won and developed by rela- 
tionships and experiences such as all human 
analogies would suggest. May it not there- 
fore be true that Christ has friends who love 
Him sincerely and serve Him faithfully but 
who have not yet entered into that closer 
place of intimacy expressed by this figure 
of the bride. Are there not differences 



214 Heaven Opened. 



among all Christians as varied as all de- 
grees of human friendship and social life? 
Are there not many who only know Christ 
as a Saviour, as a Master, as a Helper, and 
in some measure as a friend but they have 
never yet come into perfect touch with His 
heart. They do not know His voice, they 
shrink from His closer communion, they 
have chambers in their hearts that are 
shut out from His eye; they are conscious 
of things that they know He would not ap- 
prove, and there is perhaps as much of fear 
as there is of love in the respect they bear 
to Him. How can they be in any full sense 
part of the Bride of the Lamb? They are 
not harshly excluded by any decree of elec- 
tion or reprobation. They are invited to 
the innermost chambers of His heart, but 
they must pass through an experience that 
will fit them for the place of deepest love. 
They must receive those spiritual capacities 
and quickened senses which will know Him, 
respond to Him, receive Him in all the ten- 
derness of love. They must have not only 
the bridal garment but the bridal heart. 



The Marriage of the Lamb. 215 



Now as we turn to our Bibles do we find 
any intimations of these different classes 
among the friends of Christ. In the forty- 
fifth Psalm which is the love song of this 
theme we find not only the Bride who is 
brought unto the king in all her beautiful 
raiment but we also find the Queen Mother 
who stands at her right hand in the gold of 
Ophir, and "the Virgins, her companions 
that follow her," who are also brought unto 
the king but not in the same place as she is 
permitted to enter. May they not represent 
Christians true to Christ and near to His 
beloved Bride but who have not come so 
near as she, while perhaps the Queen 
Mother may represent the Jewish people, 
the mother church of Israel, standing in her 
place in the glorious day of manifestation. 

Again, in this very Apocalypse have we 
not read in one of our recent studies of two 
classes of people who are to have a part in 
the coming of the Lord and a blessed part. 
They are described in the fourteenth chap- 
ter of Bevelation. First, there are the hun- 
dred and forty-four thousand who are de- 



216 



Heaven Opened. 



scribed as the First Fruits unto God and the 
Lamb. These have been redeemed from 
among men. They are a called out com- 
pany. Their lives are spotless and unde- 
filed. They follow the Lamb whithersoever 
He goeth and even on earth they have 
learned the song they sing in heaven. Their 
ear is quickened to a closer intimacy with 
the things of God than others. 

But later in the same chapter we have 
a second company described as the harvest 
of the earth. The others were the first 
fruits. These are the full harvest. Surely 
the figures themselves determine the classes 
here described. The one represents those 
caught up first to meet the Lord in the Par- 
ousia, the second the full harvest finally 
gathered at His great Epiphany as He 
comes to begin His giorious reign. 

If these things be so it may shed a sol- 
emn light on the parable of the Ten Virgins 
in the twenty-fifth chapter of the Gospel of 
Matthew and these represent, not the Bride 
who is already returning with her Lord but, 
her friends who go out to meet her and go 



The Marriage of the Lamb. 217 



in to the marriage supper of the Lamb while 
she goes in to the marriage of the Lamb. 

But if further light were needed to con- 
firm this view, it would, we think, be found 
in our text. It is where we see two distinct 
parties represented. First, there is the 
Bride herself described in connection with 
the marriage and in her beautiful garments 
of spotless white and surpassing glory. 
Then, after she has been presented and 
described in the seventh and eighth verses, 
in the ninth verse there is an entirely dis- 
tinct statement "Blessed are they that are 
called unto the marriage supper of the 
Lamb." This is not the marriage of the 
Lamb but the supper that follows it. To 
represent the bride as called to the marriage 
supper would be out of keeping with all 
propriety. The Bride is the one who gives 
the supper with her Lord. Those that are 
called to the marriage supper are the friends 
and companions who are to share with her 
her joy. But, oh, how different the joy of 
each! They have the marriage supper. She 
has the Bridegroom. 



218 



Heaven Opened. 



Beloved, if these things be so, how tender 
and sacred is the obligation they lay upon 
us to emulate the spirit of Paul who, in 
speaking of the highest prize of the Hope 
as something not cheaply won, uses this 
stirring language, "Yea, and I count all 
things but loss. If by any means I might 
attain to the resurrection from among the 
dead. Not as though I had already attain- 
ed; either were already perfect; but I fol- 
low after, if that I may apprehend that for 
which also I am apprehended of Christ 
Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have 
apprehended; but this one thing I do, for- 
getting those things which are behind, and 
reaching forth to those things which are be- 
fore, I press toward the mark for the prize 
of the upward calling of God in Christ 
Jesus." 

God forbid that we should narrow down 
the blessed company of those who shall sit 
with Christ upon His throne to any little 
exclusive circle of our own electing. God 
give us the largest hearted Christian love 
and unity. Yea, does it not speak to all 



The Marriage of the Lamb. 219 



the instincts of our being that it would 
somehow be impossible for the self-indul- 
gent, time serving professor of religion; 
saved perhaps, but saved by the skin of his 
teeth, wanting only enough of Christ to keep 
him out of danger, and sacrificing as little 
as he can for his faith and his Lord, that 
he should share the place and the same re- 
ward with the martyr who lays down his 
life at the stake or the equally faithful sol- 
dier of the cross who lives out a life of self- 
denial and loving service for Jesus? There 
is a difference here and there will be an aw- 
ful difference there. Just what it is all go- 
ing to mean the day alone can declare. But 
beloved, let us take no risks, let our watch- 
word be 

I want to stand when Christ appears 

In spotless raiment dressed; 
Numbered among His hidden ones 

His holiest and best. 
Give me, oh Lord, Thy highest choice, 

Let others take the rest. 
Their good things have no charm for me, 

For I have got Thy best. 



220 



Heaven Opened. 



HEE KAIMENT. 

We have already seen that the imagery 
of clothing simply represents the character 
and habit of life. The Bride is therefore 
described by her garments. First we are 
told that they are "granted unto her." She 
did not have to make them or buy them but 
they were given unto her by the grace of her 
Lord and she simply put them on and wore 
them in fitting form and becoming style un- 
til they became the very habit of her life. 
Christ will clothe us with all the grace and 
holiness that we will wear; and as Isaac's 
bride received her outfit from his generous 
servant and met him in the veil that he him- 
self had sent her, so we can best please our 
Lord by being nothing, pretending nothing, 
claiming nothing, expecting nothing, of our- 
selves but putting on Christ Jesus and liv- 
ing a life of sweet and constant dependence 
on His all-sufficient grace. We can have 
from Him all the grace, all the patience, all 
the unselfishness, all the gentleness, all the 
love, all the sweetness that we will wear 
through the tests and trials of life. 



The Marriage of the Lamb. 



221 



Next, we may notice that her garments 
were of two classes. They were "clean and 
white." The word "white" here literally 
means bright. It is a word used to describe 
the transfiguration robes of the Lord Jesus. 
First, our garments must be clean, free from 
all the defilements of sin, but secondly they 
must be beautiful, lustrous, glorious. The 
difference between these two words may be 
perfectly expressed by the difference be- 
tween linen when taken from the clothesline 
and when taken from the laundry. The 
linen on the clothesline is clean, but the 
linen that has passed under the hot iron 
and been rubbed and polished is bright as 
well as clean and shines with radiant lustre. 
So Christ is preparing His Bride not only 
to meet Him without blame but to meet Him 
refined, beautified, glorified by the whole ex- 
perience of Christian life and the glory that 
comes from sanctified trial and the tests of 
life triumphantly borne, through His all vic- 
torious grace. To change the figure 

"Many a hard and biting sculpture 
Polished well those stones elect, 



222 



Heaven Opened. 



In their places now compacted 

By the heavenly Architect, 
Wherewith God hath willed forever 

That His palace should be decked." 

In conclusion we notice the other call: 
"Blessed are they that are called to the mar- 
riage supper of the Lamb." Happy are they 
who shall inherit this blessedness; but far 
more supremely, eternally blessed are they 
w T ho shall know Him, and sit down with 
Him on His throne and as His Bride. 

Speaking of the parable of the Ten Vir- 
gins and the fact that the Bride does not 
appear there suggests the beautiful inci- 
dent in the life of a well-known Christian 
woman. One of her friends one night 
dreamt that the Lord had come and that the 
glorious company of the beloved ones were 
gathered around Him. She recognized her- 
self as there and many that she knew, but 
she looked in vain for this dear friend, the 
sweetest Christian she had ever known. 
She could not see her. Her heart was very 
sad and she asked an angel who was stand- 
ing by where E., was and how it was that 



The Marriage of the Lamb. 223 



she could not be seen in that company. 
"Oh," replied the angel, "that is very plain. 
Why, the rest are all around the Bride- 
groom but she is hidden in his heart and 
therefore cannot be seen by other eyes." 

Blessed be His name there is room for 
us all even in His heart. Let us aspire to 
the nearest, highest place both while we 
walk with Him here and when we shall sit 
with Him there. 



THE EPIPHANY, THE RESURRECTION 
AND THE MILLENNIUM. 

"And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white 
horse; and He that sat upon him was called Faith- 
ful and True, and in righteousness He doth judge 
and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, 
and on His head were many crowns, and He had a 
name written that no man knew but He Himself. 
And He was clothed in a vesture dipped in blood; 
and His name is called the Word of God. And the 
armies which were in heaven followed Him upon 
white horses" (Rev. xix. 11-14). 

"And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and 
judgment was given unto them; and I saw the 
souls of them that were beheaded for the witness 
of Jesus, and for the Word of God, and which had 
not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neith- 
er had received his mark upon their foreheads or 
in their hands; and they lived and reigned with 
Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead 
lived not again until the thousand years were fin- 
ished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and 
holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: 
on such the second death hath no power, but they 
shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall 
reign with Him a thousand years" (Rev. xx. 4-6). 



Epiphany, Resurrection and Millennium. 225 

FIVE stupendous events are presented in 
majestic panorama in the nineteenth 
and twentieth chapters of Revelation. 
They are the glorious Epiphany of the Lord 
Jesus Christ; the battle of Armageddon, the 
binding of Satan, the First Resurrection 
and the Millennial Reign. 

THE EPIPHAXY. 

This is not the coming of Christ for His 
saints but with His saints. It is that glor- 
ious event which Enoch long ago described 
"Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand 
of His saints to execute judgment upon all 
and to convince all that are ungodly among 
them of all their ungodly deeds which they 
have ungodly committed and of all their 
hard speeches which ungodly sinners have 
spoken against Him." This is that glorious 
coming which sounds as a deep undertone 
through all the prophecies of the holy Scrip- 
tures. Joel saw it afar when he wrote (iii. 
11) "Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of 
decision for the day of the Lord is near in 
the valley of decision/' Isaiah saw it when 



226 



Heaven Opened. 



he cried (xxiv. 20) "The earth shall reel to 
and fro like a drunkard and shall be re- 
moved like a cottage. Then the moon shall 
be confounded and the sun ashamed when 
the Lord of Hosts shall reign in Mount 
Zion and in Jerusalem and before His an- 
cients gloriously." Zechariah beheld it afar 
when he cried (xiv. 1) "Behold the day of 
the Lord cometh and thy spoil shall be di- 
vided in the midst of thee. Then shall the 
Lord go forth and fight against those na 
tions as when He fought in the day of bat- 
tle. And the Lord shall be King over all 
the earth: in that day shall there be one 
Lord, and His name one." Christ saw it in 
vision when He exclaimed "Then shall they 
see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of 
heaven with power and great glory." 

John beholds Him marching down the 
ether path as a mighty Conqueror. He is 
mounted upon a white horse, the symbol of 
victory and righteousness, for "in righteous- 
ness He judgeth and warreth." His eyes 
are like a "flaming fire" and from His mouth 
there passes a consuming flame like "a sharp 



Epiphany, Resurrection and Millennium. 227 

two-edged sword" with which He smites 
the nations and destroys His foes. His 
vesture is "dipped in blood" as the symbol 
of victory over His enemies, and He "tread- 
eth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath 
of Almighty God." On His head are many 
diadenis, for He has already conquered sin, 
Satan and death and He is about to wear 
the crown of all the world. He wears a 
number of glorious names. "Faithful and 
True" is one and it means that all that He 
has promised and all that He has threatened 
is about to be fulfilled. The "Word of God" 
is another and this means that He is acting 
as the representative of God, fulfilling His 
will, representing His thought and acting 
in His name and character. There shall 
be no appeal from His judgment for behind 
it is all the majesty and power of the Fath- 
er's throne. Another lofty name is "King of 
kings and Lord of lords." He is coming 
now to meet earth's confederate powers and 
sovereignties and He is to be recognized as 
the only supreme Ruler to whom every knee 
should bow. Above all these there is an- 



228 



Heaven Opened. 



other name, known only to Himself, and it 
means that after all we know of Jesus there 
is still much we do not know. There is a 
mystery still hidden in His infinite heart 
and all that He is yet to reveal to us is far 
greater than even what we now know of His 
power and love. 

But this mighty Conqueror is not alone. 
He is simply the Leader of a host who fol- 
low in His train for "the armies which were 
in heaven followed Him upon white horses 
clothed in fine linen white and clean." 
These are His translated saints. These are 
the souls that have been caught up to meet 
Him in the air and are coming back with 
Him along with His mighty angels to wit- 
ness His public triumph and to share His 
millennial throne. 

Beloved, do not fail to notice that these 
triumphant hosts all come with Him from 
heaven and not from earth. They have al- 
ready joined Him in the great rendezvous of 
the skies. It will be too late then to take 
your place. It must be taken already. 
Are you enrolled for the glorious company 



Epiphany, Resurrection and Millennium. 229 

of the returning ones who are coming back 
with Jesus when He returns to reign? What 
language can describe the surpassing glory 
and splendid majesty of this bright Epiph- 
any! How human imagery fails! The sim- 
ple and sublime description of the Apoca- 
lypse leaves us awed and overwhelmed with 
its silent majesty. 

THE ARMAGEDDON CONFLICT. 

One would have thought that all the 
world would have been waiting with open 
arms to receive so glorious and beneficent 
a King. But lo, we behold earth's armies 
in battle array to resist His coming. With 
strange presumptuous fatuity the kings of 
the earth have allowed themselves to be en- 
rolled under the banner of the Antichrist 
and his wicked ally here described as the 
Wild Beast and False Prophet. These rep- 
resent on the one hand the godless govern- 
ments of the earth and on the other her 
false religion. One is political, the other 
ecclesiastical sovereignty. Both have usurp- 
ed the place of Jehovah. Both have gath- 



230 Heaven Opened. 



ered into their conflict the forces of van un- 
godly world. From other Scriptures it is 
plain that the ostensible object of their cam- 
paign is some real objective point on earth. 
They are not fighting in the air but they 
are fighting God's people on earth. There 
seems no reason to doubt that the objective 
point of their attack will be Jerusalem and 
the Jews. Both Daniel and Zechariah tell 
us that this last conflict is to be waged 
against and around Jerusalem and its deci- 
sive battle is to be upon the old field of Pal- 
estine known as Megiddo, or Armageddon. 
The Old Testament prophets tell us that for 
a time the hosts of the ungodly will seem 
to prevail. The devoted city will fall and 
the horrors of a fearful sack will have just 
begun when the Son of God will appear from 
heaven delivering His people and destroying 
His enemies. 

The discomforture and destruction of the 
foe is described by a graphic and sublime 
picture. Suddenly John beholds an angel 
standing in the sun and beckoning to all the 
fowls of heaven to gather and prepare them- 



Epiphany, Resurrection and Millennium. 231 

selves to feast on the carcasses of captains 
and of kings and of myriads of men both 
small and great. 

We find the same vision in Ezekiel where 
the birds of the air are summoned (xxxix.17) 
to "the great sacrifice upon the mountains 
of Israel to eat the flesh of the mighty and 
drink the blood of the princes of the earth." 
So terrible shall be that slaughter that it 
will take seven months to bury the dead 
after that fearful battle and the great val- 
ley of Hamon-gog shall be the hideous ceme- 
tery where Satan's last victims shall leave 
their lifeless bones. 

The soldiers who have been drawn into 
this fearful and fatal battle shall be slain 
and simply lose their lives, but the leaders 
shall be caught alive and hurled into the 
lake of fire which now for the first time be- 
comes the actual place of punishment for 
the ungodly. There is no doubt, therefore, 
that the actual leaders of this last battle 
will be living men and that their punish- 
ment will be the first awful taste of death 
eternal. Let us not suppose, however, that 



232 



Heaven Opened. 



earth's inhabitants shall all perish. The 
millions of mankind will still live on and 
pass under the reign of Christ in the millen- 
nial years. It is only those who shall be ac- 
tually arrayed in open conflict against the 
Lamb that shall be slain. 

THE BINDING OF SATAN. 

Next comes the capture and imprison- 
ment of the great Arch Leader of all these 
hosts of evil. Long has he kept in the back- 
ground and worked out his deep laid plans 
through human dupes and instruments. But 
now the hand of justice and vengeance 
reaches the actual head of all the wicked- 
ness of the ages and Satan himself is caught 
in the resistless grasp of Omnipotence. 
A mighty angel comes down from heaven 
and lays hold of the dragon, that old ser- 
pent, the devil and Satan. One is strong- 
ly inclined to think that this mighty angel 
is no other than the Son of God Himself, 
who was "manifested that He might de- 
stroy the works of the devil." Often before 
had He met him in personal combat. Now 



Epiphany, Resurrection and Millennium. 233 

He meets him for a last defeat and with the 
resistless grasp of almighty power He holds 
him helpless in His hand and binds him 
hand and foot and then hurls him into the 
bottomless abyss where he is confined in a 
sealed dungeon for a thousand years. 

What a story the history of Satan is! 
Even the few lurid gleams we have reflect 
an awful light upon the tragedy of evil and 
the author of sin. We behold him in Eze- 
kiePs vision (Ezek. xxviii.); an anointed 
cherub standing in Eden, walking up and 
dow T n upon the holy mountain of God, and 
in the midst of the stones of fire, perfect in 
his ways until iniquity was found in him. 
We see him decked with every precious 
stone, the sardius, the topaz, the diamond, 
the beryl, the onyx, the jasper, the sapphire, 
the emerald, the carbuncle, and the gold, 
and his children come honestly by their love 
of jewelry. We see him with most exquis- 
ite aesthetic taste, himself a musical instru- 
ment, for the workmanship of His tabrets 
and pipes was prepared in him the day that 
he was created, and it would seem that he 



234 Heaven Opened. 



was just one beautiful creation of self con- 
tained brilliancy, loveliness, melody and 
transcendent genius. But his heart was 
lifted up because of his beauty and he cor- 
rupted his wisdom by reason of his bright- 
ness and he defiled his sanctuary by the mul- 
titude of his iniquities, and so "Lucifer has 
fallen from heaven, no longer the son of the 
morning" but the dark winged angel of eter- 
nal night. 

And so we see him all through the his- 
tory of the human race watching for the ruin 
of others, meeting the first human pair at 
Eden's gates with the awful insinuation of 
the temptation and the fearful blight of 
sin. 

Again we behold him rearing on earth 
a kingdom of human ambition, pride and 
wickedness with which to rival the very 
throne of Jehovah. Next he appears meet- 
ing the Son of God at the threshold of His 
ministry and seeking at last to crush Him 
in the garden and on the cross. And when 
he found himself unable to destroy the Son 
of God or defeat His personal work, we see 



Epiphany, Resurrection and Millennium. 235 

him through the ages assailing His people 
and seeking either to corrupt or destroy 
His church, until at last the final crisis has 
come, in the last battle of the ages and he 
is vanquished. 

And now, for a thousand years the world 
is to be without a devil and the human race 
put on trial to show what really it will do 
under the fostering influences of divine love 
and without the instigations and influences 
of the great seducer. What a world, what 
an age that will be when Satan shall tempt 
no more and all his deceitful wiles and 
dreadful power shall be withdrawn from 
human history and the only influence out- 
side of earth and humanity shall be the 
beneficence and the holiness of Christ and 
the heavenly world. 

THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 

We are next brought face to face with 
the resurrection of the dead. This also is 
one of the transcendent and pre-eminent 
truths of divine revelation. It is something 
the human mind could never imagine or 



236 



Heaven Opened. 



grasp alone. There is no precedent or par- 
allel for it in human experience or history. 
Death is to reason and sense the end of all. 
But "Christ hath abolished death and 
brought life and immortality to light by the 
Gospel." "For now is Christ risen from 
the dead and become the firstfruits of them 
that slept." 

But there is a resurrection and a resur- 
rection. Not equally shall all the children 
of our human race partake of this wondrous 
change, for we read in the passage of "the 
first resurrection" and this implies that 
there is another resurrection. We are told 
"Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the 
first resurrection." It is therefore for the 
blessed and holy only and they that do not 
partake of it are not blessed or holy. We 
are told that "the rest of the dead lived not 
again until the thousand years were fin- 
ished." This solemn and tremendous state- 
ment implies there shall be a multitude of 
human beings that shall remain under the 
dominion of death and sleep on in their si- 
lent tombs during all the glorious events 



Epiphany, Resurrection and Millennium. 23 

of the thousand years and they shall only 
awake from the sleep of death to face the 
awful scenes of the Great White Throne and 
the judgment of terror and destruction. 

Xor is it here alone that we read of the 
first resurrection. Our Lord Jesus Christ 
speaks of those who shall be "counted 
worthy to attain unto that life and the res- 
urrection from among the dead who shall 
be as the angels of God, neither can they 
die any more being children of the resur- 
rection." Paul himself tells us that he was 
striving "If by any means he might attain 
unto the resurrection from among the dead." 
It is evidently a partial resurrection, a few 
from among many. Daniel tells us of a time 
when "many of them that sleep in the dust 
of the earth shall awake," not all but many, 
and then he adds that those that awake 
shall awake "to everlasting life" and for 
those that do not awake it shall be "ever- 
lasting shame and contempt." But this 
twentieth chapter of Revelation crystallizes 
the doctrine of the resurrection in language 
so simple and direct that, as Dean Alford 



238 



Heaven Opened. 



has forcibly said, if it does not teach the 
literal resurrection of the saints at the com- 
ing of Christ a thousand years before the 
resurrection of the wicked "then there is an 
end of all significance in language and Scrip- 
ture is wiped out as a definite testimony to 
anything." 

Of course, it is presupposed that all the 
holy dead shall not rise at the very moment 
when Satan is bound and Christ begins His 
millennial reign. The description is quite 
in keeping with the fact that these persons 
had been already raised from the dead for 
John saw them at this point already raised 
and seated on thrones. Perhaps there had 
been several groups of resurrected ones dur- 
ing in this period of the end, some caught up 
just before the tribulation, some caught up 
at its close but altogether united in the com- 
ing of Christ and the glory of His reign and 
all contemplated in one vision as those that 
had part in the first resurrection. 

Beloved, shall you, shall I be there? 
How can I tell? Thank God the answer is 
very plain for "If we be dead with Him we 



Epiphany, Millennium and Resurrection. 239 

shall also live with Him. If we suffer we 
shall also reign." Have you died with 
Him? Then you shall rise with Him. Have 
you entered into the spiritual resurrection? 
Do you know Him and the power of His 
resurrection and the fellowship of His suf- 
ferings and have you been made conform- 
able unto His death in your inner life? 
Then you shall attain unto the resurrection 
from among the dead. 

THE MILLENNIAL REIGN. 

"And I saw thrones and they sat upon 
them. And I saw the souls of them that 
were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and 
for the Word of God, and which did not 
worship the Beast, neither his image; 
neither had received his mark upon their 
foreheads and in their hands, and they lived 
and reigned with Christ a thousand years" 
(v. 24). This is no new doctrine. Peter 
tells us (Acts iii. 20) that "the times of the 
restitution of all things have been spoken 
of by all the prophets since the world be- 
gan." Therefore this is the burden of the 



240 Heaven Opened. 



prophetic vision; this is the meaning of the 
highest and sublimest flights of the Psalms 
and the prophets of the past. Is it neces- 
sary to recall the visions of Isaiah, of Ze- 
chariah, of Joel, of Ezekiel. Our Lord Him- 
self left no doubt of this blessed hope upon 
the minds of His disciples when He said to 
them such words as these: "Ye are they 
which have continued with Me in My temp- 
tations and I appoint unto you a kingdom 
as My Father hath appointed unto Me that 
ye may eat and drink at My table in My 
kingdom and sit on thrones judging the 
twelve tribes of Israel" (Luke xxii. 29, 30). 
And again, (Matt. xix. 28) "Verily I say unto 
you, ye which have followed Me; in the re- 
generation, that is in the times of restitu- 
tion, (Palingenesis, as the Greek word ex- 
presses it,) when the Son of Man shall sit 
in His glory, ye shall also sit upon twelve 
thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel; 
and every one that hath forsaken houses, 
and brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, 
or wife or children, or lands for My name's 
sake shall receive an hundredfold and shall 



Epiphany, Millennium and Resurrection. 241 

inherit everlasting life." This was what 
the Master meant when He said "To him 
that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me 
on My throne even as I also overcame and 
am set down with My Father in His 
throne." 

Beloved, we have neither language nor 
conceptions fully to take it in. It will mean 
a world without a devil, a world without a 
curse, a world without a prison, a hospital 
or a criminal, a world without a victim of 
oppression, the cry of outraged innocence, 
a tear of sorrow or a shade of night or dark- 
ness. It will mean that your mind and 
spirit shall be restored to all the perfection 
of which human nature is capable and that 
you shall be as holy, as beautiful, as happy, 
as wise, as strong, as glorious as He. It 
means that your body shall never know 
again an infirmity or a pain, that your phy- 
sical form shall respond to every thought 
and wish of your soul and that space and 
distance shall be annihilated and you can go 
perhaps as rapidly from world to world as 
your thought can pass today. It means 



242 Heaven Opened. 



that your loved and lost shall be given back 
to your affection and every trace of sorrow 
be forever wiped away. It means that this 
sad world shall be restored and all that the 
philanthropist, the patriot, the missionary 
has dreamed and longed to see shall be at 
last fulfilled under the beneficent, peaceful 
government of Jesus Christ, The war drum 
shall throb no longer. The oppressor shall 
cry out no more. Wrong shall be no longer 
upon the throne and right upon the scaffold 
but Christ shall reign in righteousness, 
peace and blessing from shore to shore and 
pole to pole and even earth's rigorous cli- 
mate, devouring sea and barren wastes 
shall disappear, and this terrestrial scene 
"rejoice and blossom as the rose." 

And best of all it means that Christ 
shall be with us in all His glory and in 
all His grace. "The tabernacle of God 
shall be with men" and under His blessed 
reign and the reign of His saints the glor- 
ious Gospel shall cover the earth and all 
nations shall accept the benignant scepter 
of the Prince of Peace and the Lord of All. 



THE GREAT WHITE THRONE. 



"And I saw a great white throne, and Him that 
sat on it, from whose face the earth and heaven 
fled away; and there was found no place for them. 
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before 
God; and the books were opened: and another 
book was opened, which is the book of life; and 
the dead were judged out of those things which 
were written in the books, according to their 
works. And the sea gave up the dead which were 
in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead 
which were in them: and they were judged every 
man according to their works. And death and hell 
were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second 
death. And whosoever was not found written in 
the book of life was cast into the lake of fire'* 
(Rev. xx. 11-15). 

THE thousand years have run their 
course and the earth is bright and 
glorious with all the blessing of the 
millennial age, until the awful curse of sin 
has almost been forgotten, and the idea of 
a personal devil is but a distant remem- 
brance of long forgotten ages. 

Yet we must not forget that while sin 



244 Heaven Opened. 



has long been suppressed, and the human 
race has accepted the scepter of Christ to 
earth's remotest bounds,; yet the elements 
of man's natural corruption have still re- 
mained in the human soul, and human na- 
ture in itself is really no better notwith- 
standing the altered circumstances with 
which it has been favored through the mil- 
lennial years. 

Therefore God permits one further test. 
One more dark tragedy must pass over the 
face of this long distracted planet before it 
shall finally settle into its eternal orbit of 
righteousness and blessing. 

And so it comes to pass that at the close 
of the thousand years Satan is loosed from 
his prison and permitted to go back once 
more to deceive the nations. Perhaps there 
was a purpose in this for even Satan him- 
self. May it not be that God designed to 
let him see the difference between good and 
evil through the glorious object lesson of 
the millennial world. For six thousand 
years he has been permitted to rule, and the 
result is desolation, sorrow, death and 



The Great White Throne. 245 



desperate ruin. Xow for a thousand years 
Christ has reigned and he beholds a pros- 
pect of beautv, blessedness and peace. How 
can he fail to recognize the difference be- 
tween the evil and the good, and, if there 
can be one spark of desire in his fallen 
spirit to turn toward the light, this is his 
final opportunity. Who can tell whether, 
if even he had learned the lesson of his long 
and dreadful imprisonment, had appre- 
ciated the meaning of this blessed object 
lesson of righteousness, and had turned to 
Jehovah with repentance and sincereity, 
even he might have found some place of 
mercy. 

But the result shows that he is incor- 
rigibly bad. The only feeling that seems to 
animate him is a fiendish hate of God and 
man, a relentless resolve to blight and 
wreck the very scene that he beholds, and 
to use his brief respite not to undo his long 
career of wrong but to perpetrate the most 
audacious and desperate climax of his long 
career of wickedness. This is his last 
chance and he stakes all upon it. For a 



246 Heaven Opened. 



thousand years he has been planning his 
desperate scheme and now is his opportun- 
ity to accomplish it. 

Perhaps he has come back to earth in the 
very form and nature of man. Perhaps 
he has mimicked the Son of God to the last 
extreme and been granted the power to be- 
come incarnate, a fiend in human form. 

And so he presents himself to men in his 
last disguise, a gifted glorious man, and be- 
gins to gather around him the restless spir- 
its, who, with unsanctified natures, have 
been tolerating the restraints of a holy gov 
ernment and fretting under the restrictions 
of Christ's authority. 

In alluring light and with ingenious dis- 
guise he pictures before them, as once he 
did to the Son of God on the high mountain 
of the wilderness, the splendors of a univer- 
sal empire combining all the power, the 
wealth, the grandeur of the world in its su- 
preme civilization, all the glorious culture 
of those days, and promises to them the aid 
of supernatural power and even the bril- 
liant dream of dethroning the Son of God 



The Great White Throne. 247 



from the very heavens as well as the earth, 
and raising humanity to its grandest possi- 
bility, even to "be as gods" and sit upon the 
throne of the Infinite and Eternal. 

This was the dream of Eden. This was 
the proud ambition which prompted the 
building of BabePs tower. This was the au- 
dacious proposal that He made to the Son 
of God in the wilderness. This, no doubt, 
will be his last exploit. It was for this that 
he left his high place in the heavens. This 
has been the purpose of his grand rebellion 
from its inception, to take the very place of 
God and cast Him from His throne. Doubt- 
less he offers to many the alluring bribe not 
of boundless power and supreme dominion, 
but the gratification of every selfish and un- 
holy desire, the allurements which Pagan- 
ism and Mohammedanism have held out to 
their votaries; the satisfaction of every 
gross and sinful passion, and an existence 
of sensual delight, and there will be enough 
of evil left in human nature to give a ready 
response. 

One by one the restless and unholy spir- 



248 Heaven Opened. 



its of earth gather to his side until at length 
their numbers are as "the sand of the sea" 
and as a mighty army of millions, perhaps 
billions of men, armed not only with the 
weapons of earth but of hell, and, led by 
this brilliant archangel, they oppose the 
camp of the Son of God and besiege the 
"beloved city" itself. 

To human reason and sight it will doubt- 
less seem at first a fearful and formidable 
assault, but if we are to judge by the dram- 
atic picture of the Apocalypse the suspense 
will not be long. The tragedy will be swift 
and terrible. 

The fire of God will fall from heaven and 
in a moment the myriad ranks of earth and 
hell will melt away, engulfed in devouring 
flame. Satan will again be caught and cast 
out in eternal imprisonment; not now into 
the abyss, the scene of his former confine- 
ment, but into the Lake of Fire where the 
Wild Beast and False Prophet are already 
suffering torment day and night forever. 

Henceforth the devil's career is ended. 
No more shall he return to the earth or go 



The Great White Throne. 249 



forth to other realms to deceive and to de- 
stroy. He has been tested to the uttermost 
and found to be incorrigibly bad, and human 
nature has been proved and tried and it also 
has utterly and signally failed. 

Now the story of time is to end. The 
last of earth's dispensations has run its 
course, and the Eternal Cycle is about to be- 
gin. And so the final scene so long pre- 
pared at last appears, and before the vision 
of the Seer there rises a spectacle of majesty 
and terror, and a tragedy of woe more aw- 
ful than mortal or angel has ever gazed upon 
before. 

It is the Great White Throne. It is the 
final judgment. It is the resurrection of 
the wicked. It is the passing out of the old 
earth and heaven and the ushering in of the 
new creation. 

THE GREAT WHITE THR0XE. 

It is the symbol of sovereignty and of 
judgment. Its greatness tells of the impor- 
tance of this august occasion. It is the 
greatest day that earth has ever seen. It 



250 



Heaven Opened. 



is the grand assize before which all the mil- 
lions of the past are to appear. Its 
whiteness speaks of the immaculate justice 
and unerring wisdom which are to charac- 
terize the Tribunal. There will be no mis- 
takes here. There will be no misunder- 
standings here. There will be no hasty judg- 
ments here. Everything will be right and 
everything will be final and from this court 
there will be no appeal. 

Where that throne shall be erected the 
boldest imagination can only approximately 
conceive. Probably it will appear in the air 
where the New Jerusalem is to descend, 
hanging suspended from the heavens and 
towering high above the earth. It shall be 
encompassed with clouds of awful blackness 
and gleams of terrific light. Myriads of 
angels will hover round it as the officers of 
justice and the executioners of judgment, 
and all the portents of a dissolving universe 
will add to the sublimity and terror of the 
scene. 

But grandest of all the objects of that 
awful day, will be 



The Great White Throne. 



251 



HE WHO SAT UPON IT. 

It is the throne of Jehovah. It is the 
throne of the Son of God. The form that 
sits enwrapped in majesty is He who once 
stood a prisoner before Pilate's judgment 
hall. Pilate and Jesus meet at last, but, 
oh, how altered are the circumstances! Po- 
etry has imperfectly tried to paint that 
scene and write upon our imagination: 

********** that dreadful Form 
With rainbow wreath and robes of storm, 
On cherub wings and wings of wind, 
Appointed Judge of all mankind. 

Well may we ask, 

"Can this be He who wont to stray 
A pilgrim on the world's highway, 
Oppressed by power and mocked by pride, 
The Nazarene, the Crucified?' " 

Yes, it is even He, and many will remem- 
ber in that day how once He said, "The hour 
is coming when they that are in their graves 
shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and 
shall come forth; they that have done good 
unto the resurrection of life and they that 



252 



Heaven Opened. 



have done evil unto the resurrection of dam- 
nation." "The Father judgeth no man but 
hath committeth all judgment unto the Son 
and hath given Him authority to execute 
judgment also because He is the Son of 
Man." 

The men of Athens will be there to re- 
member how once a passing missionary 
stood in the Areopagus and cried, "God 
commandeth all men everywhere to repent, 
because He hath appointed a day in which 
He will judge the world in righteousness 
by that Man whom He hath ordained, where- 
of He hath given assurance unto all men 
in that He hath raised Him from the dead." 

The Gentiles of Cesarea will remember 
how Peter said, "This is He who was or- 
dained to be the Judge of the quick and the 
dead." Yes, it is Jesus. It is He who came 
to save the world and they who have reject- 
ed the blood of the Lamb are now to realize 
what is meant by "the wrath of the Lamb." 

Once or twice during His earthly life 
there blazed from His eye and from His 
tongue the foregleam of judgment fire, as 



The Great White Throne. 253 



when He cursed the barren flgtree and it 
withered at His word; or, as when He ut- 
tered those awful woes against the Scribes 
and Pharisees which we read in the twenty- 
third chapter of Matthew, finishing up at 
last with the fearful words, "Ye serpents, 
ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape 
the damnation of hell?" 

Now His mission of mercy is accomplish- 
ed. His mediatorial work is finished, and 
now He sits down upon the throne of abso- 
lute justice and impartial judgment, and 
there is something in His countenance and 
His bearing so awful that the very universe 
shudders, and from His face the earth and 
the heaven flee away; the sun goes out in 
darkness; the firmament is rolled us as a 
scroll; the stars forget to shine, and the 
earth reels and staggers as a drunken man. 

THE KISEN DEAD. 

"And I saw the dead, small and great, 
stand before God. And the sea gave up the 
dead which were in it, and death and Hades 
delivered up the dead which were in them." 



254 Heaven Opened. 



Now earth's myriads who had lived and died 
and slept on through the thousand years 
are ushered back to life again by an awful 
power which compels them to live. The 
wretched spirit of the criminal steals back 
into his more wretched form, his face dis- 
tracted with agony and his risen body bear- 
ing the impress of the soul that abused it 
and that now comes back to share its doom. 
Just as truly as the righteous rise so shall 
the wicked come forth from the graves of 
earth, from the graves of ocean, from the 
elements into which their bodies have been 
dissolved by decay, or by cremation. God 
will know where to find them. Each soul 
shall take on a body absolutely fitted to its 
nature and reflecting its quality and charac- 
ter and they shall cringe before that awful 
throne and form a spectacle more terrible 
even than judgment. 

Oh, soul, you may for a little reason cut 
the frail cord that binds you to your body; 
you may suspend for a little the functions 
of that mortal frame and "shuffle off," as 
you call it "the mortal coil." But remem- 



The Great White Throne. 



255 



ber you have got to live forever. That soul 
can never die and that body must come 
forth to life and judgment to "give account 
of the deeds done in the body whether they 
be good or evil." 

THE JUDGMENT. 

"The books were opened and another 
book was opened which was the book of 
life, and the dead were judged out of those 
things which were written in the book ac- 
cording to their works." The inexorable 
principle of this judgment is personal mer- 
it or demerit. They are judged rigidly ac- 
cording to their works. There is no mercy 
here. This is the cardinal principle of di- 
vine judgment enunciated by St. Paul in 
the second chapter of Eomans in these sol- 
emn words: "And thinkest thou this, O, 
man, that judgest them which do such 
things, and doest the same, that thou shalt 
escape the judgment of God? Or despisest 
thou the riches of His goodness and for- 
bearance and longsuffering; not knowing 
that the goodness of God leadeth thee to re- 



256 



Heaven Opened. 



pentance? but after thy hardness and im- 
penitent heart treasurest up unto thyself 
wrath against the day of wrath and revel- 
ation of the righteous judgment of God; 
who will render to every man according to 
his deeds; to them, who by patient contin- 
uance in well doing seek for glory and hon- 
or and immortality, eternal life; but unto 
them that are contentious, and do not obey 
the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indig- 
nation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, 
upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of 
the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; but 
glory, and honor, and peace, to every man 
that worketh good, to the Jew first, and al- 
so to the Gentile; for there is no respect of 
persons with God." 

This is the law pure and simple. The 
Gospel is a subsequent and wholly differ- 
ent principle, but the persons who will 
stand in this judgment have rejected the 
Gospel, and therefore they shall be judged 
strictly by the law and according to their 
w T orks. 

There are two books. The one is the 



The Great White Throne. 257 



book of record or remembrance, containing 
all the actions, thoughts, words, motives— 
the whole testimony against sinful men. 

How can this testimony be preserved? 
Ah, friends, has not science taught us some- 
thing of the innumerable ways in which 
God can register the records of the past by 
countless automatic processes on the liv- 
ing pages of the universe? What is the tel- 
ephone but just a little hint of the unseen 
wires that are passing through the spaces of 
this universe in every direction, and regis- 
tering at the other end every whisper and 
echo of our lives? What is the phonograph 
but a suggestion that God has a thousand 
sensitive plates in every part of yonder fir- 
mament, and that every word you speak 
becomes recorded and treasured up yonder 
to be re-echoed in the judgment day? What 
is man's photography but a little bit of 
light discovered by our imperfect minds out 
of the vaster and grander processes which 
we have never discovered, by which God 
perhaps, is constantly recording and pre- 
serving a continuous photograph of every 



258 



Heaven Opened. 



act and attitude of human life, and that 
some day it will all repeat itself in the aw- 
ful Vitascope of the judgment record. Thus 
God can preserve a testimony and can make 
every conscience and soul confess that it is 
true. 

Let us not think that this is to be some 
hurried, terrified moment of swift and sud- 
den doom. Doubtless it will be calm and 
long protracted, and time will be given for 
every testimony, every excuse, every case, 
and each soul will go forth echoing its own 
sentence and vindicating even its most ter- 
rific judgment. For it is written that "un- 
to Him every knee shall bow and every 
tongue shall confess that He is Lord.*' 

Oh, how can sinners stand in that great 
day! Oh, how can any of us meet that aw- 
ful test! Beloved, we cannot stand; we can- 
not meet it; we dare not face that dread 
tribunal and that holy God. 

And we need not, because there is anoth- 
er book that shall be opened in that day. 
It is the Lamb's book of life. It is the re- 
cord of those names that accepted eternal 



The Great White Throne. 259 



life as the free gift of the Saviour's love 
and the purchase of His precious blood. It 
is a book of mercy. It is a record of grace, 
and for those who are entered there the 
judgment is past. The Lord bore it Him- 
self in their stead and in that dreadful day 
they shall sit with Him among the justified 
and among the judges of the world. Be- 
loved, this, the Great White Throne, is no 
place for a child of God. Alas, for those 
that enter there! For them mercy is past 
and for them justice only can mean eternal 
doom. 

It is true that God will adjust the stand- 
ard of judgment to the light and opportuni- 
ty that each soul enjoyed. "As many as 
have sinned without law shall be judged 
without law," and for them the standard 
will be the law of conscience, the unwrit- 
ten law of God in their own hearts. And if 
it shall be found that any mortal being has 
lived up to the law of conscience he shall be 
acquitted in that day. But is it not writ- 
ten "If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquity, 
Lord, who should stand 9 " 



260 



Heaven Opened. 



Beloved, do not venture into the judg- 
ment of the Great White Throne, but hasten 
to the foot of Calvary. Accept His mercy 
and His precious blood. Tell Him that He 
has been judged for you in that awful hour 
when He cried, "Now is the judgment *f 
this world. Now shall the prince of this 
world be cast out," and "I, if I be lifted up 
will draw all men unto Me." Tell Him you 
accept His judgment instead of yours and 
ask Him to make you know that your name 
is written in the Lamb's book of life, and 
then, for you, this glorious word is true, 
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that hear- 
eth My word, and believeth on Him that 
sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not 
come into judgment; but is passed from 
death into life." 

I shall never forget a Christian woman 
on whom I called many years ago in her 
last hours, and how this glorious truth of 
our deliverance from the judgment was 
used of God to banish her fears and open 
for her an abundant entrance into the ever- 
lasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour, 



The Great White Throne. 



261 



Jesus Christ. I found her near her end 
and sincerely but timidly trusting in the 
mercy of her Saviour. She had given her 
heart and life to Him the best she knew, 
"But, oh," she said to me again and again, 
"that awful judgment, how I dread it! I 
believe that somehow God will forgive and 
take me in, but oh, the judgment! the judg- 
ment! my soul shrinks from the terrible 
prospect!" I sat down by her side with my 
open Bible and poured into her mind the 
glorious Gospel that had but just before 
brought to me the perfect peace of God. I 
said to her, "Dear sister, you are not going 
into the judgment. You have been judged 
already in Christ for your sins, and long, 
long before that dreadful judgment shall 
come to pass you will have been with Jesus 
in heaven and through the glory of the mil- 
lennial years, and when you come with Him 
to the judgment you will be seated by His 
side." As the truth gradually broke in up- 
on her soul and at last filled it, it was beau- 
tiful to see the transformation. The dark- 
ness and dread melted away and the light 



262 



Heaven Opened. 



of hope and victory passed over her face, 
and she wept with wonder and gratitude to 
think it could be true. As she passed 
through the gates there was not a cloud nor 
a fear. 

Beloved, do you know your full salva- 
tion? Will you claim it? 

And, oh sinner, will you know your only 
hope? Keep out of the judgment. Flee to 
the Saviour. Make sure that your name is 
written in the Lamb's book of life. 

THE EXECUTION OF THE SENTENCE AND THE 
DOOM OF THE CONDEMNED. 

Our sensitive hearts may shrink from 
the truth but our weakness will not quench 
those flames, and our specious reasonings 
will not close those fiery gates. It is writ- 
ten by the kindest hand that ever sought to 
bless us, "Whosoever was not found writ- 
ten in the book of life was cast into the 
Lake of Fire." 

This is the dreadful abode prepared not 
for man but for the devil and his angels. 
Into it Satan and Antichrist have already 



The Great White Throne. 263 



been hurled, and now those wTio have chos- 
en him as their master, and rejected the 
mercy of the Lord are to share his everlast- 
ing punishment. What it means it is idle 
to speculate. It is called the "second 
death." It is spoken of as "forever and ev- 
er" and if men may speciously reason that 
this verse just means age-long, it must be 
remembered that the age in which it oc- 
curs is not one of the pages of time but the 
mighty aeons of eternity. Oh, let us not 
deceive ourselves by playing with words, 
but let us take in all their meaning, the ear- 
nest faithful warnings by which divine mer- 
cy would shut us up to the only way of es- 
cape; and let us "flee from the wrath to 
come" and "lay hold upon eternal life." 



THE NEW HEAVEN AND EARTH AND 
THE NEW JERUSALEM. 

"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for 
the first heaven and the first earth were passed 
away; and there was no more sea. 

"And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusa- 
lem, coming down from God out of heaven, pre- 
pared as a bride adorned for her husband. 

"And I heard a great voice out of heaven, say- 
ing, Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, 
and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His 
people, and God Himself shall be with them, and 
be their God. 

"And God shall wipe away all tears from their 
eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither 
sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any 
more pain; for the former things are passed 
away" (Rev. xxl. 1-4). 

FIEST of all, let us fully understand that 
the sublime picture of these closing 
chapters of the Apocalypse is not a 
description of the heavens into which our 
beloved ones enter when they pass from us 
through the gates of what we call death. 
There is a heaven into which Christ has 
passed and where, like Stephen, our parted 
ones who sleep in Jesus are welcomed home. 



The New Jerusalem. 265 



There is a Father's house where they rest in 
peace and blessedness and doubtless it has 
in it in embryo the elements of the glorious 
city and the eternal rapture which this vis- 
ion describes; but the full glory has not yet 
come. They are waiting for their crowns 
and for their everlasting home until we 
shall be gathered with them in the great 
consummation. 

Let us also remember that this is not a 
description of the Millennial earth and the 
glorious state which Christ's reign for a 
thousand years will bring. That is brief- 
ly described in the twentieth chapter. The 
scenes in this chapter come after the millen- 
nium and the dissolution of all things which 
it is to lead. This is the eternal state, a 
new heaven and a new earth. May the Spir- 
it of inspiration give us a vision to see and 
a heart to understand this glorious Apoca 
lypse of the future. 

A NEW HEAVEN AND EARTH. 

The scenes of this chapter follow earth's 
final tragedy. There has been a crisis, a 



266 



Heaven Opened. 



catastrophe, a fearful cataclysm. Before the 
face of Him upon the Great White Throne 
the earth and the heavens fled away and 
there was found no place for them. Just as 
man had to pass from the earthly to the 
heavenly, from the natural to the supernat- 
ural, from the mortal to the resurrection 
life through the gates of death, so now the 
material universe itself has to pass through 
the resurrection by way of death. The old 
planet is consumed with flame, the firma- 
ment and the heavenly bodies pass through 
a similar convulsion or dissolution, and 
from the wreck there emerged a new heaven 
and a new earth. 

This did not occur at the commencement 
of the millennial age. Then undoubtedly 
great changes of earth's climate and sur- 
face took place, but they were only partial. 
Now it would seem the whole fabric of the 
universe must pass through the great tran- 
sition and have its resurrection too. It 
would seem as if the taint of sin and the 
touch of Satan had left defilement and pol- 
lution upon the very atmosphere of the uni- 



The New Jerusalem. 26? 



verse and God must have a great house- 
cleaning and wash out with flames of fire 
every vestige, every memory of the awful 
crisis through which nature and the uni- 
verse have passed. 

And so by some mighty process the ex- 
isting universe is dissolved and out of it 
emerges a new creation. 

Now this is not the first time this doc- 
trine has been revealed in the Holy Scrip- 
tures. Away back in Isaiah lxv. 17 we 
read, "For behold I create a new heavens 
and a new earth, and the former shall not 
be remembered nor come into mind, but be 
ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I 
create, for behold I create Jerusalem a re- 
joicing and her people a joy, and I will re- 
joice in Jerusalem and joy in My people, 
and the voice of weeping shall be no more 
heard in her nor the voice of crying." And 
again in II. Peter iii. 7-13, we are told that 
as the earth was once destroyed by a flood 
of water it is to be once more destroyed by 
a sea of fire. "The heavens and the earth 
which are now by the same word kept in 



268 



Heaven Opened. 



store reserved unto fire against the day of 
judgment and perdition of ungodly men/' 
Seeing, then, that all these things shall be 
dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye 
to be in all holy conversation and godliness, 
looking for and hasting unto the coming of 
the day of God, wherein the heavens being 
on fire shall be dissolved and the elements 
shall melt with fervent heat? Neverthe- 
less we, according to His promise, look for 
new heavens and a new earth wherein dw r el- 
leth righteousness." 

This is precisely the teaching of the apos- 
tle John and it looks forward not to the mil- 
lennial reign of Christ but to the great cri- 
sis that is to follow it. The apostle's eye is 
looking on to the end of the panorama and 
taking it all in the light of final consumma- 
tion. 

In the change which is to come upon the 
earth it is added that "There was no more 
sea." To-day the ocean covers and renders 
waste three-quarters of the surface of this 
planet. The world without an ocean could 
contain four times as great a population as 



The New Jerusalem. 269 



the present surface of the planet. The 
ocean is a place of danger and of death. 
There shall be a river of delight and, doubt- 
less, a sea of glass in the terrestrial geogra- 
phy of the coming age, but all that is ter- 
rific and scourging in the old ocean shall 
have passed away. 

THE NEW EARTH, GOD'S ABODE. 

It will be the personal residence of God. 
"Behold the tabernacle of God is with men 
and He will dwell with them and they shall 
be His people and God Himself shall be 
with them and be their God." This is a 
most significant statement. At the present 
time, this earth is not the residence of God 
in any primary sense. For a little while it 
was the residence of Jesus Christ, but He 
was far from home and His Father's throne. 
At present it is the residence of the Holy 
Spirit but He is here as a visitor calling out 
a people to be gathered home. It is a far 
outlying world. It is a distant sphere that 
rolls in its orbit of darkness around the cen- 
tral throne; somewhere else today is the per- 



270 Heaven Opened. 



sonal seat of God and the metropolis of the 
universe. When Jesus Christ ascended He 
went home to His Father's throne. He left 
the realms of earth, He passed through the 
heavens, He ascended far above all heavens 
and somewhere yonder in space He rested 
and sat down on the right hand of God. 

The eye of the telescope has not discov- 
ered the metropolis of God's empire. The 
light of inspiration has not told us where. 
But somewhere, locally and actually, God 
has His capital where Christ in human form 
is residing, and where angels and the spirits 
of glorified men and the bodies of Enoch 
and Elijah and those that rose from their 
graves after Christ's resurrection and as- 
cended with Him, are living today in actual 
physical presence. It is not so far away 
but we can reach it by the telephone of 
prayer, but that may be farther than the 
farthest star that rolls in dark immensity. 

Science tells us that somewhere in this 
universe there is a central star around which 
all the stars and constellations are revolv- 
ing. Just as the moon moves around the 



The New Jerusalem. 271 



earth, and the moon and earth around the 
sun, so the sun and all his planets are re- 
volving around some other centre and this 
system round a yet greater; and yonder in 
the far Pleiades they tell us a mighty sun, 
Alcyone, far vaster than ours, seems to 
be at present the centre of all the stel- 
lar motion. Is it there perhaps that 
God has His abode? We cannot tell, 
but this we know that the centre of the 
universe some day will be this little 
world of ours. God will come down with 
His retinue and His throne, from earth will 
go forth the authority and the power that 
will govern all the material worlds and all 
the myriad beings that people immen- 
sity. 

What a glorious prospect! What a stu- 
pendous honor! What a majestic hope! It 
would seem as if God were at last to be 
avenged for the curse of sin by turning the 
curse into a blessing and making the very 
place that had been associated with the bit- 
terest hate of Satan and the cruellest sor- 
row of Jesus, His own dear Son, the very 



272 Heaven Opened. 



jewel of the universe, the paragon of crea- 
tion and the capitol of the heavens. 

NO DEATH OK SORROW. 

It will be a world without death, dis- 
ease or sorrow. There will be no more cry- 
ing. There will be no more pain. There will 
be no death; and God will wipe away all 
tears from their eyes. This does not only 
mean that there will be no tears shed in 
that happy world, but that all the tears that 
were ever shed shall be turned into joy, 
that they shall be more than healed and 
there shall be no single memory or shadow 
of pain or grief to gall the perfect felicity of 
eternal years. Oh, sorrowing one, be pa- 
tient. Lift up your heart. Rejoice. "Weep- 
ing may endure for a night but joy cometh 
in the morning." Oh, mourner, some day 
earth's fairest scenes will not be its ceme- 
teries, and earth's sweetest affections will 
not be merely the means of making death 
beds sadder and breaking loving hearts. 

NO SIN. 

The other feature of the renovated 



The New Jerusalem. 273 



earth will be that there shall be no sin and 
nothing that defileth shall enter into the 
holy city and the happy life of the coming 
age. Satan will never tempt again. There 
will be no more curse or cursed one. Never 
again will God have to cloud His face and 
perform the strange work of judgment 
which He so little loves, but the universe 
will settle down to everlasting love and un- 
interrupted joy. We shall be established 
and shall know that we shall never fall 
again. Angels will be confirmed in their 
high and holy state and the very shadow of 
evil shall at last be forgotten. Heaven will 
be so pure that evil will not be thought, re- 
membered or conceived. The curse of time 
is to know both good and evil. In the inno- 
cence of those happy years man shall not 
know evil but only good. Oh, for that day 
to come when the crushing defiling shadow 
of sin and doubt and fear shall never fall 
again. 

THE NEW JEEUSALEM. 

Speedily the vision of the apostle is ab- 
sorbed with one spectacle. It is the pic- 



274 Heaven Opened. 



ture of the New Jerusalem, the holy city 
which he now beholds descending from God 
out of heaven and which is to be the chief 
attraction of the heavenly age. 

Let us notice that this city is not cre- 
ated for the first time. It is recognized as 
having been there before and John sees it 
descending from God out of heaven and rest- 
ing finally upon the earth where it becomes 
the capital of the earth just as earth is the 
capital of the universe. This encourages us 
to believe that the New Jerusalem had al- 
ready been a part of the glorious economy 
of the millennial age. As we have already 
suggested it seems probable that this glor- 
ious city with its blessed inhabitants con- 
stituting the Bride of the Lamb, was 
formed at Christ's coming in the air and be- 
came the residence of Christ and His saints 
during the millennial age. During that per- 
iod it is not located on earth but seems to 
be suspended in the air where Christ shall 
come to gather His risen and translated 
ones. It would seem as if during the mil- 
lennial age it would be the heavenly home 



The New Jerusalem. 275 



of the saints and so near to earth that they 
can pass from its gates constantly and in- 
stantly on their ministries of service and 
government over all the earth, but repre- 
senting a higher life than that which the 
tribes of earth shall live in their terrestrial 
sphere. Now, however, the glorious city de- 
scends to earth and becomes its metropolis. 

The description of this city of light 
and glory is not a mere figure or symbol. 
God is not playing with words when He 
gives us the dimensions, the structure, the 
very colors of the heavenly city. He means 
that it is an actual fact and not a mere fig- 
ure of speech. There will be a real world, 
a real body of physical beings, a real Christ 
in His risen state and a real city with all 
the glory and splendor of which these vivid 
descriptions give us but a faint approxi- 
mation. 

ITS FORM. 

Let us note the form and structure of 
this glorious city. "It lieth foursquare. The 
length, the breadth, and the height of 
it are equal. " It is a perfect cube like 



276 



Heaven Opened. 



the Holy of Holies in the ancient Taber- 
nacle which was a figure of heaven. 
The most remarkable feature of this de- 
scription is that the height was equal to the 
breadth and length. In so vast a city as 
this it would either require that the towers 
should rise to a prodigious elevation or else 
that the streets should run vertically as well 
as laterally. There seems no reason why the 
latter should not be the case because to us 
up and down are terms entirely dependent 
upon the center of gravity. The reason it is 
difficult for us to ascend is because of the 
attraction of the earth; but in that city 
earth's attraction will be broken and God 
will be the centre of gravitation and in the 
supernatural life we, like Christ, shall be 
invested with a power that will enable us to 
rise and soar in the heavens as freely as to 
pass from place to place on earth. Therefore 
it would seem to be true that the streets of 
this city will run up and down as well as 
backwards and forwards and that our ma- 
terial conceptions of space and substance 
will be transcended by higher laws. 



The New Jerusalem. 277 



THE DIMENSIONS OF THE CITY. 

They are colossal and at first we are 
staggered by its vastness. The entire meas- 
urement is 12000 furlongs, that is 1500 
miles. If this be the circuit of the city it 
would make it 370 miles long, the same 
width and the same height. Think of a city 
one side of which would reach from New 
York to Buffalo, the next from Buffalo to 
North Carolina, the whole space includ- 
ing the states of New York, Pennsylvania, 
New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, and West 
Virginia. And then when we attempt to 
realize the height we are staggered by the 
conception of a city whose towers would 
reach nearly four hundred miles into the 
air, that is almost one hundred times as 
high as earth's most lofty peaks. 

This is the Father's House with its 
many mansions which Christ has been so 
long preparing. This is the eternal home 
of all the families of the redeemed. Here 
are to be the palaces and homes of all the 
holy that have ever lived on earth. Surely 
in this mighty city of the skies there will be 



278 Heaven Opened. 



room for all. Oh, ye who are poor and often 
tried with pinching poverty, lift up your 
heads, your fortune is coming by and by, 
your city hath foundations and its Builder 
and Maker is God, your home is prepared 
where decay and parting shall never come. 
Take in the grandeur of your Master's 
thought, the beneficence of His resources, 
the transcendent glory of the hope laid up 
for you and remember Him who said "No 
man hath forsaken houses and lands for 
My sake but he shall receive a hundred- 
fold in the life eternal. " 

THE WALLS OF THE CITY. 

It is surrounded with a jewelled wall 
of solid and crystalline jasper. The walls 
are not so high as the city, being only a lit- 
tle over two hundred feet in height. But 
even this would present a magnificent ef- 
fect with the turrets of the city rising high 
above. 

The foundations of this wall are de- 
scribed apart from the wall. They consist 
of various precious stones representing all 



The New Jerusalem. 279 



the tints of the rainbow and the most pre- 
cious crystals of the mine. They seem to 
represent the steps that rise to the entrance 
of the city. There are twelve gates to the 
city and to each of these gates it would 
seem there is a grand approach by means of 
twelve lofty steps. These steps are of all 
the colors of the rainbow blending in per- 
fect harmony. There is the ruby, the sap- 
phire and the diamond, the emerald, the to- 
paz and the amethyst, all that crystal rad- 
iance and tinted beauty can combine to pro- 
duce the most dazzling effects. 

All this shall be blended by God's infi- 
nite taste and the city will look like a rain- 
bow of glory even in its very foundations. 

THE GATES OF THE CITY. 

It is entered by twelve gates. Each of 
these is a single pearl. God will know how 
to make the materials for this splendid 
architectural monument if He has to gather 
all the pearls of the universe and blend them 
into one of these massive gates of crystal- 
line beauty. And doubtless from these gates 



280 



Heaven Opened. 



there shall open broad highways and mag- 
nificent avenues into every part of the glor- 
ious city. 

THE STREETS OF THE CITY. 

They .are of solid gold and its pavement 
is described as like transparent glass. This 
does not represent so much its transparen- 
cy as its translucency. It is finely pol- 
ished like a mirror. Glancing up these splen- 
did avenues and these golden palaces shin- 
ing in the light of God, each reflecting back 
the glory of the golden pavement and the 
glorious sky, one can scarely imagine what 
a spectacle of dazzling splendor it must be. 

THE RIVER OF THE WATER OF LIFE. 

This flows from the throne of God and 
of the Lamb, circling doubtless through 
the city, running down its innumerable ave- 
nues and carrying freshness and life to ev- 
ery part. Doubtless it will be in some sense 
the channel of physical and spirtual life 
and convey to those who drink of its waters 
and lave in its depths the quickening ful- 



The New Jerusalem. 



281 



ness of the blessed Spirit and the living 
Christ. 

THE TREES UPON" ITS BANKS. 

Upon the banks of the river grows the 
tree of life. It is not a single tree but a sin- 
gle kind of tree with innumerable trees 
bearing their fruit anew each month while 
its leaves are for the healing of the nations 
who people the earth abroad. 

THE LIGHT OF THE CITY. 

There is no night and there is no sun. 
If our sun has been renewed in yonder hea- 
vens, he is but as a taper compared with the 
glory of Him who is the Light of heaven. 
"For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb 
are the light thereof." God Himself sheds 
His effulgence through the eternal day and 
He who is the "Light in Whom there is no 
darkness at all" fills the heaven with the 
glory and brightness of His supernal pres- 
ence. There is no need for rest. There is no 
cessation of the song or service. There is no 
yesterday and no tomorrow . There is no 
chronology and there is no time, but it is 



282 



Heaven Opened. 



one glad, eternal now, and the happy beings 
know that their joy can never end, their day 
can never have a period. 

THE TEMPLE OF HEAVEN. 

There is no temple there for God is the 
temple. No outward forms of worship are 
necessary in our conventional sense for it 
is all worship, all love, all fellowship. Per- 
haps no language will be needed, but know- 
ing as we are known, communing with God 
in the silent eloquence of the Spirit and un- 
doubtedly knowing each other's hearts as 
perfectly as God knows ours, heart to heart 
and soul to soul shall flow together like 
kindred drops of water or globules of air 
and all shall ever breathe out and send 
forth their adoration unto Him, who is the 
Source of Life and the Supreme Object of 
their worship and love. 

Yes, this is the city for which Abraham 
looked, the "city that hath foundations, 
whose Builder and Maker is God." This is 
"the heavenly Jerusalem" of which the apos- 
tle wrote where dwell the "innumerable 



The New Jerusalem. 283 



company of angels, the general assembly 
and Church of the firstborn ones." This is 
the goal of ancient hope, the dream of an- 
cient prophecy and the eternal reward of 
the sacrifices of the saint, the sufferings 
of the martyr and the love of those who 
counted all but loss for Christ. This is the 
vision that came to the seraphic soul of him 
who sang with almost inspired cadences 

"Ob, mother, dear Jerusalem, 
When shall I come to thee? 
Then shall my sorrows have an end, 
When I thy joys shall see." 

THE INHABITANTS OF THE CITY. 

Three classes are described: 

1. Those that are written in the Lamb's 
book of life, Christ's redeemed ones. Chap- 
ter xxii. 27. 

2. Those who wash their robes. Chapter 
xxii. 14. "Blessed are they that wash their 
robes (new version) that they might have 
right to the tree of life and may enter in 
through the gates of the city." This de- 
scribes not only the saved ones but the 
sanctified also. 



284 Heaven Opened. 



3. Those that overcome. This is for the 
conqueror. After we have taken Christ as 
a Saviour and a Sanctifier we shall be test- 
ed and we must withstand in the evil day 
and having done all, stand. While the Lord 
has said, "I will give unto him that is 
athirst of the water of life freely." He also 
adds immediately afterwards, "He that ov- 
ercometh shall inherit all things and I will 
be His God and he shall be My son." The 
palaces and thrones of the New Jerusalem 
are only for the conquerors. 

THE OUTCASTS. 

On the other hand there is a very explic- 
it account of those who are excluded. 

1. The cowardly. Chapter xxi. 8. This 
is the Greek translation of the word "fear- 
ful" there. The cowardly man is placed in 
contrast with the conqueror, the man who 
does not dare to overcome self and sin, but 
yields with cowardly selfishness and fear to 
the public opinion of the world and the 
clamor of his own heart. He cannot stand 
the tests that are necessary for this glorious 
prize and is disqualified and excluded. 



The New Jerusalem. 285 



2. The unbelieving. The very organ 
and sense by which we shall be able to know 
and understand that heavenly world, is a 
spirit of faith. A man without faith would 
be lost in heaven, blind to its life, deaf to 
its sounds, insensible to its sweetness and 
delight. 

3. The abominable. That is those that 
sin against nature and the very instincts 
which God has put within us for our purity 
and protection against sin. 

4. The murderers, including all who 
are controlled by violent passions and the 
spirit of hate which is essentially murder. 

5. The whoremongers, including all 
the forms of sensual and gross indulgence 
in impurity and licentiousness. 

6. The sorcerers. Those who play with 
spiritualism, clairvoyance and all the var- 
ious forms by which the devil in the pres- 
ent day is getting men to worship him, in- 
cluding Christian Science, theosophy and 
all kindred forms of spiritism. 

7. Idolaters, and this includes not only 
the worshippers of wood and stone but"cov- 



286 



Heaven Opened. 



etousness is idolatry/' and "if any man love 
the world, the love of the Father in not in 
him." 

8. All liars are excluded. 

9. Everything that defileth. There shall 
be no sin or possibility of sin in that holy 
place. 

10. All that are not written in the 
Lamb's book of life, all the unsaved ones. 

Beloved, where do we stand? Looking 
up at that city of light, gazing down into 
that yawning abyss of fiery woe, once more 
let us hear Him say, "The Spirit and the 
Bride say, come, and let him that heareth 
say come, and let him that is athirst come, 
and whosoever will, let him take the water 
of life freely." 



EVEN SO, COME. 



"Even so Lord Jesus, come quickly" (Rev. xxii. 
20). 

THE last few verses of the book of Reve- 
lation contain a number of conclud- 
ing messages. 

THE SACREDNESS OF THIS BOOK. 

I. The first is a solemn assertion of the 
truth and importance of these prophecies 
and the announcement of an awful penalty 
upon all those who shall trifle with their 
integrity by taking from or adding to the 
words of the prophecy of this book. "And 
he said unto me, These words are faithful 
and true, and the Lord God of the holy 
prophets sent His angel to show unto His 
servants the things which must shortly be 
done. For I testify unto every man that 
heareth the words of the prophecy of this 
book, If any man shall add unto these 
things, God shall add unto him the plagues 



288 



Heaven Opened. 



that are written in this book: and if an 
man shall take away from the words of the 
book of this prophecy, God shall take away 
his part out of the book of life, and out of 
the holy city, and from the things which 
are written in this book." This is God's 
awful seal upon the sacredness and the 
present significance and importance of this, 
His last message to mankind. 

THE PROPHETIC MESSENGER. 

II. There follows a little incident relat- 
ing to the messenger by whom the revela- 
tion was brought to John. For the mo- 
ment John seems to have taken him for the 
Lord Jesus Himself and so fell down at his 
feet to worship him, but the messenger im- 
mediately corrected him and announced that 
he was not divine and had no right to wor- 
ship was but simply one of John's "fellow 
servants." And he adds with singular sig- 
nificance, "Of thy brethren the prophets 
which keep the sayings of this book." This 
is a little flash of light into the heavenly 
world which leaves much further light to be 



Even So, Come, 



289 



- .sired. This messenger seems to have 
been a human being employed as an instru- 
ment of comfort, help and service for the 
apostle of the Lord. It is therefore true 
that the glorified ones whom we call dead 
are thus employed in yonder heavenly 
world? This is not spiritism nor anything 
approaching it but it gives us the right to 
believe that those who have passed on are 
blessedly employed and perhaps know far 
more of this world that they have left be- 
hind than they knew while here. 

It may be that this was one of those 
prophets of the Old Testament who was 
raised from the dead as we know that many 
of the Old Testament saints were, immedi- 
ately after Christ's resurrection. We are 
told at that time "the graves were opened 
and many of them that slept in the dust 
came forth after His resurrection and en- 
tered the holy city and appeared unto 
many." 

This would afford a clear explanation 
of the mystery. It may be that there are 
more than we dream already serving with 



290 



Heaven Opened. 



the ascended Lord as the firstfruits of the 
coining resurrection. And it may be to 
these the Scriptures refer when they speak 
of His having led captivity captive, and 
ascended on high with the glorious train 
of the ransomed captives from the reign 
and realm of death. 

THE TIME AT HAND. 

III. Next comes a solemn assurance of 
the urgency of this prophetic message 
and the fact that it is for the present time 
and that the crisis of these momentous 
events is speedily coming on. Daniel was 
told to seal the vision and leave it for the 
future ages; but John was told to "seal it 
not; for the time is at hand" (xxii. 10). 

THE MORNING STAR. 

IV. Next comes the personal message 
of the Lord Jesus Himself identifying Him- 
self with the one who had appeared at the 
opening of the Apocalypse as the Alpha and 
Omega, the Beginning and the End, the 
First and the Last, and announcing Himself 
as the Root and Offspring of David, the 



Even So, Come. 



291 



Bright and Morning Star, and the One who 
was about to speedily and swiftly come. 

His reference to His relation to David 
was a ray of hope for suffering and waiting 
Israel, letting them know that the promises 
and covenants made with their ancient king 
and head were not forgotten, and the still 
more beautiful figure of the Bright and 
Morning Star is the assurance to His wait- 
ing people that His presence with them in 
their hearts is the sure foregleam of His 
speedy and visible coming. It is the same 
truth expressed by the Apostle Paul in the 
beautiful words, "Christ in you the 
hope of glory." It is a word of comfort and 
a ray of light to all for whom it still is the 
dark hour of the night while the sun is yet 
hidden beyond the distant horizon. But 
the Morning Star is risen in our hearts. 
We know Jesus and He in us is the pre- 
paration and the pledge of His blessed 
Parousia and His glorious appearing. 

But the announcement of His coming is 
very urgent emphatic and repeated. Three 
times He says, "Behold I come quickly. 



292 



Heaven Opened. 



Blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the 
prophecy of this book" (v. 7). "Behold I 
come quickly, and My reward is with Me to 
give every man according as his work shall 
be" (v. 12). "He which testifieth these 
things saith Surely, I come quickly" (v. 
20). The word quickly here literally means 
swiftly. It tells us of an accelerated move- 
ment in the final preparations for the Lord's 
return, and when the signs begin to come 
to pass He will soon be here. God's chron- 
ology is not like ours, rigid and absolute but 
adjusted to conditions and preparations; for 
He has said "I will finish the work and cut 
it short in righteousness for a shortened 
work will the Lord make on the earth." 

Beloved, we are in the days of this short- 
ened work. This is the time when we may 
hasten the coming of our Lord by sending 
forth the message of the Gospel and seek- 
ing to have the Bride prepared to meet her 
coming Lord. Are we endeavoring to make 
real His own promise and command, "Be- 
hold, I quickly come," or, more literally, 
"swiftly." 



Even So, Come. 



293 



A HARDENED AGE. 

V. Next we have the intimation of a 
state of things toward the end in which the 
hearts of many will grow obdurate and the 
appeals of the Gospel will fall on deaf and 
unresponsive ears. Surely that is the mean- 
ing of the eleventh verse. "He that is un- 
just let him be unjust still; and he which is 
filthy let him be filthy still; and he that is 
righteous let him be righteous still; and he 
that is holy let him be holy still." Soon 
human character will become crystallized. 
Men and women are settling down to their 
eternal state. The Lord's coming will 
stereotype all conditions and there shall be 
no place for change in those dreadful days, 
but even before the end men will reach the 
condition, where being past feeling they 
neither hope nor fear, and the most inspir- 
ing vision of the coming glory and the most 
awful warnings of the dark abyss are equal- 
ly in vain. Surely the world is reaching 
this coarse material age and men just live 
on according to their natural tendency and 
trend — each hasting to his own place. Oh, 



294 Heaven Opened. 



how solemn! Oh, how terrible! Oh, let us 
make sure which way we are settling. 

THE SPIKIT'S CRY. 

VI. Then there follows an ardent and 
intense cry and prayer from the Spirit and 
the Bride for Him to come (v. 17). This is 
the meaning surely of this remarkable pas- 
sage. It is the cry of the Holy Ghost, 
"Come, Lord Jesus. " It is the cry of the 
waiting Bride, Come, beloved One. The Holy 
Ghost has been entrusted with the execu- 
tive administration of the present age with 
this one view of leading up to the Lord's 
return. Oh, how He longs for the consum- 
mation! Oh, how earnestly and ardently 
He has been working to this end! And 
whenever a human soul enters into the true 
condition of the Bride, the separtion, edu- 
cation, love, fellowship and intimacy which 
alone can qualify us for Christ's perfect 
love and eternal fellowship on the throne; 
the one cry of all our being is "Come, Lord 
Jesus." 

Dear one, you may know by this whether 



Even So, Come. 



295 



you are of the Bride or not. Are you say- 
ing, Come? 

THE MISSIONARY CRY. 

VII. Next comes the universal call to 
all the world, the great evangelistic cry; the 
sending forth of the message to all the na- 
tions before the end. We have it in the sev- 
enteenth verse also. "Let him that heareth 
say, Conie." This is the missionary cry. 
This is the angel flying in the midst of 
heaven having the everlasting Gospel to 
preach unto all them that dwell upon the 
face of the earth, to all kindreds and peoples 
and tribes and tongues. This is the great 
movement of our time. This is the great 
trust committed to our hands. Let us take 
up the cry and pass it on until "this Gospel 
of the kingdom shall be preached in all the 
world for a witness unto all nations; and 
then shall the end come." 

THE LAST INVITATION. 

VIII. Once more the Lord Himself now 
turns to the sinner and makes His last ap- 
peal in all the intense and solemn light of 



296 



Heaven Opened. 



the things that have just been passing be- 
fore our minds. It would seem as if His 
heart became overwhelmed as once before 
when He was marching into Jerusalem in 
triumph and all the grandeur of His sur- 
roundings passed swiftly out of His 
thoughts, and as He gazed upon the city at 
His feet He could only think of its peril 
and coming doom, and yielding to an im- 
pulse of unutterable compassion He burst 
out into bitter weeping and addressed to 
impenitent Israel that plaintive appeal, 
"If thou had'st known, even thou, at least 
in this thy day, the things that belong to 
thy peace but now they are hid from thine 
eyes." 

It is said that once a squadron of Aus- 
trian cavalry were sweeping in review in 
front of a great assembly when out from 
the crowd there stepped a little child in 
heedlessness and toddled across the way un- 
noticed until it was just in front of the gal- 
loping dragoons. It seemed impossible to 
save its little life. A moment more and 
with a mighty thunder those iron heels 



Even So, Come. 



297 



would dash out its little life. But there was 
one man equal to the occasion. Leaning 
forward from his seat, holding himself in 
the saddle by great dexterity by his feet, he 
reached in front of his fiery charger until 
his hands just swept the ground, and by a 
dexterous movement he caught the little 
one just in time, lifted it from destruction 
and recovered his seat with out the line for 
a moment breaking, while a mighty cheer 
like a thousand thunders told of the joy and 
admiration of that great multitude. 

So the Lord Jesus Christ is Himself 
marching on to His final triumph and al- 
most at the crisis of His appearing. Sudden- 
ly He pauses in these closing messages, 
bends down from His throne and reaches 
out His hands in tenderness and love 
to you, poor lost one, who are standing 
across His path and must inexorably 
be crushed beneath the tread of the 
armies of the judgment unless you 
are swiftly saved. It is you, dear one, 
that He is calling now as He cries, "Let 
him that is athirst come, and whosoever will 



298 



Heaven Opened. 



let him take the water of life freely." Often 
before had He said, Come, but never was 
there such a Come as this. Every barrier 
is broken down, every difficulty is reduced 
to the simplicity of trust and love. He does 
not even demand that you should know 
much or do much or feel much or attempt 
anything, but just come. Move toward 
Him. Let your heart reach out, let your 
prayer cry out, let your will resolve the 
best you can, to follow Him and He will 
count it coming; and has He not already 
said, "Him that cometh unto Me I will in 
no wise cast out." 

THE LOBE'S LAST WOKD. 

IX. Yet once more we cannot resist 
lingering for a moment to notice the deep 
and longing desire on the part of the Lord 
Himself to come. We have heard the Spir- 
it's cry for Him to come. We have felt the 
Bride's deep longing that He should come; 
but now behold Him expressing His own 
intense desire to come. Pressing into lan- 
guage its utmost fulness of meaning He 



Even So, Come. 



299 



cries, "Surely I come quickly." This is 
His hour as well as ours. This is the reward 
of His sufferings, the coronation of His once 
thorn-crowned head, the joy of His meet- 
ing with His Bride and His beloved ones, 
the full fruition of all His suffering and 
shame. Shall we not help the Master's joy 
and haste His coming? 

THE RESPONSE OF LOVE. 

X. Finally the response of His people's 
heart, "Amen, even so, come, Lord Jesus" 
(v. 20). 

Is this our amen? Is this our response? 
and shall we take the "even so," and by His 
grace make our lives agree with our lan- 
guage, evening up everything we say or do 
to this blessed hope, this simple watch- 
word, "Even so, Come Lord Jesus, Come 
quickly." 

Christ is coming; this we know. 
Let our lives be "Even so." 

"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be 
with you all. Amen." 



H 153 82 






i0' 



% 0 1 



^ *5tf£d2$^ ^£ Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 




; Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnes 
Treatment Date: July 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 1 606£ 
{724) 779-21 1 1 



